Current Events > UK Conservative Party has received a surge in cash from Russian donors

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnsons-conservatives-receive-surge-in-cash-from-russians-2019-11

A new investigation reveals that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party has received a surge in cash from Russian donors over the past year, news that comes as his government continues to block publication of a report into Russian influence over recent elections.

An OpenDemocracy investigation found that the UK Conservative Party received at least 498,850, or about $642,000, from Russian business executives and their associates between November 2018 and last month.

This was a significant increase from the previous year, when such donations amounted to less than 350,000.

The increase came despite increased pressure on the party to cut its ties to Russian oligarchs since the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury last year.

The news also comes with Johnson's chief strategist, Dominic Cummings, under the spotlight after the Sunday Times reported claims from a whistleblower about "serious concerns" about the time he spent in Russia in the 1990s.

Major donors to the Conservative Party in recent months included Lubov Chernukhin, whose husband, Vladimir, served as a finance minister under Russian President Vladimir Putin in the early 2000s, OpenDemocracy found.

She donated 450,000 over the past year. In 2014 she paid 160,000 for a game of tennis with Johnson and former Prime Minister David Cameron, as well as a further 30,000 for dinner with the current education secretary, Gavin Williamson.

Chernukhin earlier this year dined with ex-Prime Minister Theresa May and numerous female members of the Cabinet at the time, after donating 135,000 to a Conservative Party fundraising event.

The London-based public-relations firm New Century Media donated 20,000 to the Conservatives in May of this year.

The company has a series of links to Russia. In 2013, the Russian government paid the firm to portray a "positive image" of the country in the UK, OpenDemocracy found.

New Century Media also reportedly played a role in helping Vasily Shestakov, Putin's judo partner, meet Cameron at a Conservative fundraising dinner in 2014.

Other donors include the Russian-born banker Lev Mikheev and the energy tycoon Alexander Temerko.

Temerko once said he and his "friend" Johnson would "plot" and drink wine together at Johnson's parliamentary office, when Johnson was the UK's foreign secretary, Reuters reported.

A Conservative Party representative said: "The Conservative Party does not accept foreign donations as they are illegal."

The person said the donors reported by OpenDemocracy "have lived in Britain for many years and are British citizens, which gives them the democratic right to donate to a political party."

The new figures emerged with Johnson under increasing scrutiny for his government's refusal to publish the report into possible Russian interference in the UK's 2016 Brexit referendum.

The UK Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee sent Johnson its report weeks ago, but the prime minister is yet to sign it off and make it public, according to committee chair, MP Dominic Grieve.

The 50-page report's publication is not expected until after the general election on December 12.

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The Foreign Office minister, Christopher Pincher, told lawmakers on Tuesday that it would be "some time" before the report was published, adding: "When the prime minister has concluded that the report is publishable he will publish it."

British members of the European Parliament on Wednesday piled more pressure on Johnson to publish the report.

A group of 16 of them from multiple political parties, led by Labour's Julie Ward, signed a letter calling for its "immediate publication."

It said: "We believe for our constituents and the country that this is a matter of grave urgency; the country must go into the upcoming General Election knowing that it is free and fair from outside meddling.

"If the publication cannot be made available due to the sensitive nature of the matter, the government should respond accordingly outlining what is preventing it from being made public.

"As this cross-party letter shows, this is not about political ideology it is about the foundation and fundamentals of our democracy. We must have transparency and we must have scrutiny across all levels of government."

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Russia needs to be sanctioned so hard they learn to stop fucking with other people
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CADE FOSTER posted...

Russia needs to be sanctioned so hard they learn to stop fucking with other people

Yeah, but why are they so out in the open on this one

They could be pushing for the left wing party/accelerationism

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CADE FOSTER posted...

Russia needs to be sanctioned so hard they learn to stop fucking with other people

See the thing is, if they get their candidates the sanctions will disappear so in their eyes they don't have to do crap.

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GoodOlJr posted...

They could be pushing for the left wing party/accelerationism

no. where the fuck do you get this?
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Russia's actions like these make it pretty apparent to the world what sort of political parties/movements tend to stagnate countries (so that mother Russia has less competition and hindrance in trying becoming a superpower).

Unfortunately, conservatives, populists and/or right-wingers are too stubborn to realize this.

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GoodOlJr posted...

Yeah, but why are they so out in the open on this one

They could be pushing for the left wing party/accelerationism

They're pushing for a divided west. Throwing money at an election is pretty much all they need to do to create like 6 months of infighting and controversy.

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GoodOlJr posted...

Yeah, but why are they so out in the open on this one

They could be pushing for the left wing party/accelerationism

Those are not words commonly associated with the Conservative Party.

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Right wingers like winning they will never stop unless everyone wakes up and votes them out
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GoodOlJr posted...

CADE FOSTER posted...

Russia needs to be sanctioned so hard they learn to stop fucking with other people

Yeah, but why are they so out in the open on this one

They could be pushing for the left wing party/accelerationism

conservative parties in the UK and US tend to be the socially conservative and authoritarian ones though, which more aligns with Russian interests

I think they're being open about it because it promotes distrust and instability in Western democracies, which Russia has historically wanted, as well as reinforces Putin's international influence which appeals to his base and his reputation as a strongman

A Conservative Party representative said: "The Conservative Party does not accept foreign donations as they are illegal."

The person said the donors reported by OpenDemocracy "have lived in Britain for many years and are British citizens, which gives them the democratic right to donate to a political party."

i like how this wasnt mentioned at all until the very end in a little footnote

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PlsGodDontBanMe posted...

A Conservative Party representative said: "The Conservative Party does not accept foreign donations as they are illegal."

The person said the donors reported by OpenDemocracy "have lived in Britain for many years and are British citizens, which gives them the democratic right to donate to a political party."

i like how this wasnt mentioned at all until the very end in a little footnote

you can be a British citizen and still have close ties to Russian interests and oligarchy

Reminder Russia is funding almost every single large right-wing populist party in Europe. Front Nationale, UKIP, Fidesz, FSM & Lega, SD, AfD etc, the list goes on. This is much bigger than just the UK and the US. Russia has all of Europe in a natural-gas based stranglehold already and more and more parties are winning elections on Russian money. The amount of influence they have gained in foreign politics in general is frightening.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/22/italian-mps-demand-answers-over-claims-salvinis-league-sought-kremlin-funding
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/21/marine-le-pens-russian-links-us-scrutiny/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39478066
https://nyheteridag.se/den-svenska-diplomaten/
(This is in Swedish but it's an article about a right-wing politician who accepted a "business trip" as an "election observer" in a Moscow election where he got all expenses paid, freedom to do basically whatever and was the only party official invited from any party, obviously grooming him). I wish I could translate the whole thing because the dude is an idiot who overstepped every boundary in existence during this trip so Russia was not very happy with him.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/world/europe/russia-britain-brexit-arron-banks.html
Russians Offered Business Deals to Brexit's Biggest Backer

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-nigel-farage-arron-banks-russia-links-eu-referendum-vote-leave-a8422506.html
Of course they all deny it because why wouldn't they but the money comes from somewhere and some, like Marine Le Pen was denied loans by the French banks and suddenly she had a campaign out of nowhere.

Wait til you see how the NRA has been laundering Russian money for Oleg Deripaska and just how far Russian money reaches, it's a real can of worms.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/timeline-of-russian-plot-to-infiltrate-nra-and-gop/

inb4 some buttflustered trumpeter calls me Russophobic again

Everyone does it. Just take the money and try not be assassinated
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treewojima posted...

you can be a British citizen and still have close ties to Russian interests and oligarchy

sure, but this is the same thing as, say, a certain type of citizen voting or donating for their own interests, say Spanish Americans donating to more pro Spanish/Mexican causes, Asian citizens donating for their own causes, etc

and not the mysterious Russian boogeyman trying to illegally interfere with elections like this report is trying to fearmonger.

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TBH there is absolutely jack all anyone can do about it. Russia is untouchable so long as they have Tsar Bomba level nuclear weapons.

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you are so naive its funny
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s0nicfan posted...

They're pushing for a divided west. Throwing money at an election is pretty much all they need to do to create like 6 months of infighting and controversy.

I think you got it, just want to bedisruptive in general

-support conservatives
-media REEEs
-causes instability
-both sides react

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CADE FOSTER posted...

you are so naive its funny

A current day Tsar Bomba could take out most of the state of Maryland and a large chunk of Virginia by itself if detonated in Washington DC. And they have multiple copies of it.

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https://youtu.be/AC8pJvY8Wdo

better not call Putin out on his bullshit, or he'll drop a Cold War era 50MT bomb on your neighborhood

treewojima posted...

better not call Putin out on his bullshit, or he'll drop a Cold War era 50MT bomb on your neighborhood

Or a thermos of polonium tea.
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This boogeyman...

https://www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnson-blocked-russian-interference-report-kremlin-link-conservative-donors-2019-11

Boris Johnson is suspected of blocking publication of an inquiry into Russian interference in UK elections, because of the "embarrassing" links it reveals between the Russian secret service and donors to the Conservative party.

The prime minister feared that the revelations would be weaponised by opposition parties during the upcoming general election campaign, sources involved in the decision to block its publication told the Times.

The revelation comes as an investigation published this week found that there has been a surge in donations from Russian oligarchs, who have links to the Kremlin, to the Conservative party in the past year.

Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee submitted their report on Russian interference in UK elections to Downing Street two weeks ago. However, Johnson's government have insisted that it is not "publishable" prior to the election.

"When the prime minister has concluded that the report is publishable he will publish it," the Foreign Office Minister Christopher Pincher, told members of Parliament on Tuesday, adding that it could take months to emerge.

However, sources who have seen the report told the Times believe it has been suppressed because it highlights the connections between London-based Russian oligarchs who fund the Conservative Party and Russia's Federal Security Bureau.

"What makes it interesting is just how close some of these people are to the FSB are or have been," one source told the paper.

Sources told the paper that Russian figures with connections to the Kremlin "have contacts right across British society, whether it's business or in some cases the House of Lords." However, they add that there is no evidence of "systematic wrongdoing."

The report also risked damaging relations between Downing Street and Donald Trump, the Times reports, due to the involvement of Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent behind the dossier on the president's contacts with Moscow.

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