The Conservatives have received significant recent cash injections from a number of Russian donors and their associates, an openDemocracy investigation has discovered.

Well-connected Russian oligarchs and companies heavily involved in lobbying for Russian interests have stepped up their funding of the Conservative party in recent months, our analysis reveals.

The news comes as Boris Johnson stands accused of presiding over a “cover-up” over his government’s refusal to release a report into alleged Russian interference in British politics.

Responding to openDemocracy’s findings, Labour MP Ben Bradshaw said: “Now we know one of the reasons Boris Johnson is suppressing the official report into Kremlin penetration of our democracy. It's because of the substantial and growing links between Russian money and the Tory Party.”

Downing Street has claimed that there was not sufficient time for the report “sign off process” before the election.

Former Prime Minister Theresa May had previously promised to distance the Conservatives from Russian money, especially in the wake of the Salisbury poisonings in 2018.

By far the largest recent Russian donor has been Lubov Chernukhin. The wife of a former Russian deputy finance minister, Chernukhin has donated more than £450,000 to the Conservatives in the last year.

Former arms tycoon Alexander Temerko is another prominent Russian donor in Tory circles who has given money in the past year. Temerko, who has spoken warmly about his “friend” Boris Johnson, has gifted over £1.2 million to the Conservatives over the past seven years and has reportedly admitted being involved in a Eurosceptic plot to oust May as Tory leader less than a year ago.

The news comes as Johnson faces growing pressure over his decision to withhold the report on Kremlin electoral interference. Speaking in Parliament Tuesday, Dominic Grieve, Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee and a former Tory MP, has said that the reasons given for the report’s “unprecedented” delay were “bogus”.

Russian donors

With the Conservatives looking to raise £30 million ahead of December’s general election, major funders to the Tory campaign warchest are expected to include a number of existing Russian donors.

The Conservatives have received more than £3.5 million from Russian funders since 2010. While donations slowed down after the poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in March 2018, they have picked up again in recent months, according to filings at the Electoral Commission.

Between November 2018 and October 2019, the Tories received at least £489,850 from Russian donors, compared to less than £350,000 in the previous year.



In May, the Conservatives also received almost £20,000 from a lobbying company closely connected to both Russian interests and the upper echelons of the Tory party.

Founded by former Ulster Unionist MP David Burnside, New Century Media was paid by the Kremlin to promote a “positive image” of Russia in the UK in 2013.

New Century Media, which has donated more than £177,000 to the Conservatives over the last decade, previously arranged for Vladimir Putin’s judo partner to meet then-prime minister David Cameron at a major Tory fundraising event in 2013. Burnside has also represented Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch close to Putin, who is wanted by the FBI on bribery charges.

New Century Media has also represented Gerard Lopez. The former Formula One chief who has close business ties with senior figures in Putin’s Russia came under fire from Labour MPs when he donated £400,000 to the Conservatives in 2016.

Another prominent recent Tory donor is the Russian billionaire financier Lev Mikheev. The Moscow-born investment banker, who has donated £212,000 to the Tories since 2010, was described by the Daily Mail in 2014 as a “billionaire financier with offices in London and next door to the Kremlin in the Russian capital”. Records show that former Tory MP Rory Stewart received £10,000 from Mikheev for his unsuccessful Conservative leadership bid.