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The Tories have accepted £30,000 from the wife of a former crony of Vladimir Putin to dine with Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson .

The donation by Lubov Chernukhin, who is married to ex-Russian deputy finance minister Vladimir Chernukhin, comes just a fortnight after Mr Williamson said a Russian cyber attack on Britain’s electricity supply could kill thousands.

Mr Williamson will give Mrs Chernukhin a private tour of Churchill’s War Rooms in Whitehall.

He will then host a dinner for her and a group of her friends there after she made a successful bid at last week’s Tory lavish Black and White Ball.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

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Banker Mrs Chernukhin previously successfully bid £160,000 at a Tory fundraiser to play tennis with Boris Johnson, and also paid £20,000 to dine with Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson in Edinburgh.

The Tories deny that Mrs Chernukhin, now a British citizen, is a Putin crony.

Her billionaire husband, Vladimir, 49, fell out of favour with the Russian president when he was forced out of his post running a state-run Moscow bank.

Mr Williamson said last month that Moscow had been photographing UK power stations in a threat to damage our infrastructure.

The Conservative Party declined to comment.