Russian-born husband of Tory donor ‘earned millions via oligarch connections’
The husband of one of the Tory party’s biggest donors has claimed he earned up to £42m a year in Russia and had business dealings with the now-sanctioned oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Oleg Deripaska.
Vladimir Chernukhin, 53, husband of the Tory donor Lubov Chernukhin, used his position in the Russian elite to cultivate influential business contacts while investing in private ventures, according to court documents.
Chernukhin, who served as deputy finance minister early in Vladimir Putin’s first presidency, transferred assets to the west after falling out of favour with the Russian regime.
Chernukhin’s wife, Lubov, 49, has donated nearly £2.2m to the Conservative party. Labour has called on the Tories to donate any Russian-linked political donations to Ukrainian humanitarian causes.
A 78-page witness statement, written by Russian-born Chernukhin for a 2018 high court case against oligarch Oleg Deripaska, details how he built his fortune and networked with some of his country’s richest oligarchs.
It discloses that he built a personal investment portfolio while working in “official roles”, including chairman of the now-sanctioned Russian state development corporation VEB.RF.
Chernukhin says in the statement: “In the relevant period up to 2004, it was widely accepted that those who held public positions such as mine would also be interested in projects in the private sector. Some discretion was required … but the reality was that I (along with many other people at my level in the Russian Federation) held many private interests…
“My time at VEB and in government elevated me to the inner circles of the Russian establishment, opened up an array of high-level connections for me and deepened my knowledge of the Russian economy.”
He said
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