An ex-Kremlin minister attended the cash-strapped Tories’ summer fundraising bash – just days after Rishi Sunak blasted Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Chernukhin was pictured arriving at Rishi Sunak’s party’s event at the exclusive 42-acre Hurlingham Club in London on Thursday evening. Mr Chernukhin was Russian leader Putin’s deputy finance minister in the early 2000s. His wife Lubov is a major Conservative party donor who has been snapped with Theresa May and Liz Truss.
It comes after the PM delivered a speech at the Summit on Peace in Ukraine on June 15 – hitting out at Putin for having “no interest in genuine peace”. It also follows the Tories controversially attacking Keir Starmer this week by releasing a poster suggesting he would be soft towards dictators.
The image, posted by the Conservatives on X, showed the Labour leader alongside Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un – with accompanying tweet warning: “They’re watching.” Also in attendance at the Tory summer ball was Maurizio Bragagni, a controversial Tory donor who claimed Sharia law was the “de facto law” in some English towns and cities.
The Conservatives distanced themselves from the donor’s “foreign muslim” comments in June 2022. In an online article Mr Bragagni – who has handed the party hundreds of thousands of pounds – described London as “worse than any African metropolis”.
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Despite the Conservatives saying the party “in no way whatsoever condones these unacceptable comments”, Mr Bragagni was spotted turning up at Thursday’s event. As recently as November, he donated £5,000 to the Conservative Party. And in April he gave another £5,000 to former Tory minister Liam Fox. He also gave £11,300 to the party in February 2023.
Figures emerged this week showing the Tories raised only £290,000 in the second week of the election campaign – dwarfed by Labour’s £4.4million. The Mirror revealed how access to senior ministers – including the PM – was sold off at the summer party at the club bordering the River Thames, which is described on its website as “a green oasis of tradition”.
A political night in with minister Michael Gove, radio host Iain Dale and top Sunak advisor James Forsyth went for £25,000. Meanwhile, the first item in the auction was four tickets to see Magic Mike live in London, a show based on the movies – with an opening bid of £750.
A Labour source said: “The cash-strapped Tories will clearly take cash from absolutely anyone now. Just as Nigel Farage reveals himself to be a Putin apologist the Tories are rolling out the red carpet to a former member of the Russian government.”
A Conservative Party spokesman said: “Fundraising is a legitimate part of the democratic process. The alternative is taxpayer-funding of political campaigning, which would mean less money for frontline services like schools and hospitals.”
They added: “Ms Lubov Chernukhin has lived in Britain for many years and is a British citizen, which gives her the democratic and legal right to donate to a political party. The Chernukhins are not allies of Mr. Putin. Mr Chernukhin was dismissed from his role as head of a state bank in 2004 for his loyalty to Mikhail Kasyanov, a vocal critic of Mr. Putin, and subsequently had to leave the country.”
A spokesperson for Mrs Chernukhin said: “Any suggestion that Mr. and Mrs. Chernukhin have any connection to the regime of President Putin is categorically false and defamatory. Mr and Mrs Chernukhin do not support, and have never supported, the policies of President Putin. Mr. Chernukhin’s reasons for leaving Russia are well documented, where he was dismissed for his loyalty to Mikhail Kasyanov, a vocal critic of President Putin and opposition leader.
“As a British citizen, Lubov Chernukhin is entitled to make donations to political parties as she sees fit and any donation she has made, has been declared in accordance with the rules of the Electoral Commission. Mrs Chernukhin is a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin’s regime and is a staunch opponent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
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Mr Bragagni said: “I am deeply disturbed by false allegations on my personna raised by… [an] article entitled “Tory donor Maurizio Bragagni’s ‘foreign Muslim’ comments condemned” and published by BBC news on 10 June 2022.1 I find this article biassed, as its title reflects this and not reflecting at all who I am and values for what I stand for.
“On the basis of allegations raised in my private capacity, which are based on a single, inexistent source and on private conversation and letters, I have already responded publicly by saying “never knowingly offended anyone”, and “I apologise that my article originally written in Italian caused unnecessary controversy when fully translated in English”.
“But I reject with force any allegations of me being portrayed as islamophobic and racist, based on the evidence and activities deriving from my life. My friends encompass all the spectrums of world religions. I am leading a company with strong Social Corporate Responsibility, providing jobs and hopes for a better life to hundreds of people in a very depressed area and I am supporting charities that help children, young girls and womens to lift themselves out of poverty by providing access to better education.”
He added: “In the Conservative Party I was pleased to join the Party and support the first Prime Minister Rishi Sunak son, an immigrant as I am.”