As Russia donates hugely to Tories, there’s still no sign of report on that country’s political interference in UK
Boris Johnson: he says he can’t publish the so-called ‘Russia report’ until a committee on intelligence and security reconvenes to approve it – but he’s responsible for nominating all its members and hasn’t done so. Why not?
Wow. These Tories are coining it very nicely, courtesy of these Russian donors, aren’t they?
Is it because Boris Johnson vetoed a report on Russian interference in UK politics so many months ago, and has been stubbornly refusing to allow its release ever since?
It has just been revealed that Lubov Chernukhin, who is married to former Russian finance minister Vladimir Chernukhin, donated £325,000 to the Conservative party in the first quarter of 2020, according to the latest Electoral Commission data.
In total, Chernukhin has donated £1.6 million to the party over the last five years, including £45,000 for a game of tennis with Johnson, according to the Daily Mail.
An Open Democracy investigation last year found that donations to the Conservative party from Russian business figures and their associates between November 2018 and 2019 came to £498,850 – a significant increase on the previous year, when donations amounted to less than £350,000.
Why are they handing over all this cash?
I mean, nobody dishes out huge amounts of money and expects nothing in return, do they?
Does it have anything to do with the fact that a report on Russian interference in UK politics has been due for publication since December 2019, but Boris Johnson has been suppressing it?
The report by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, including information about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 referendum on membership of the European Union, was finalised in November last year – but Johnson refused to allow it to be published before the December general election. That in itself is suspicious, isn’t it?
After the election, the new Conservative government approved the report’s release on December 13, 2019 – but it still hasn’t become available.
Want to know why?
Because the Intelligence and Security Committee was dissolved with the 2017-19 Parliament and is waiting to be re-convened.
It is now more than six months since the new Parliament began – one-tenth of its lifetime – and this important committee remains devoid of members and has not met.
Want to know why?
Because all members are nominated by the prime minister, who happens to be Boris Johnson – and he hasn’t done it.
We keep reminding him about it…
Boris Johnson happily believes the public has now completely forgotten the report into Russian interference in UK politics publication of which he suppressed last year
RT and let him Know he’s wrong #ReleaseTheRussianReport #StillWaiting pic.twitter.com/Yy7CumM5yO
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) June 14, 2020
… but – no. Still nothing.
It’s as if he has something to hide…
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We all know the conservatives are taking money from the Russians but what about the money we don’t hear about what goes straight to the conservative involved if it’s cash it’s hard to prove but a bankers check can be traced. Just like what Boris Johnstone said about brexit ( I never voted to leave) he said taking back control we have not even left and Donald Trump has already started tell Boris what to do and not to do using a trade deal as a weapon. We have all just found out how weak Boris Johnstone is by refusing to sack Dominic Cummings or Priti Patel for bullying claims and Matt Hancock for how he has ran the NHS lack of PPE lack of ventilators even ordering ones what were useless because they were cheaper lying about the death rates also lied about the test targets and now promised the track n trace would be up and running by June that failed and now we hear it could be winter by the time it’s running BUT it’s not classed as important enough.
Your headline is inaccurate and misleading. it is not ‘Russia’ that is donating to the Tories, but Russian oligarchs as private individuals, most of whom do not in fact support the Russian government. Please amend accordingly.
No. We don’t know why these Russians are making those donations, and the only information that might tell us is being withheld by Boris Johnson. I’ll leave my headline as it is for now.