“Russians, what Russians? I don’t know any Russians. Nope. Not I. Must be that Communist Corbyn who’s in bed with Russians. Personally, I’m very careful to keep my distance from any possible compromise from Putin & the FSB. Yup: epitome of care, discretion & probity, that’s me.”
‘Matthew Elliott, destined to become CEO of official Vote Leave campaign, was a founding member of Conservative Friends of Russia & visited Moscow Duma as part of a delegation. Nalobin wished Elliott well on his engagement in 2014 & described Boris Johnson as “our good friend”’.
‘Nalobin, who now lives in a Moscow apartment block known as “FSB block”, is son of Nikolai Nalobin, former KGB general. From 2011 onward, Nalobin met various British ‘social media influencers’ at a regular ‘Digital Barbecue’. First event was co-hosted with blogger Paul Staines’
‘Boris Johnson met an ex-KGB agent during a highly controversial trip to attend a party two days after attending a high-level Nato summit that focused on Russia’

‘Russian billionaire says there was ‘nothing unusual’ in meeting the then foreign secretary’ https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/nov/17/boris-johnson-met-alexander-lebedev-without-security-after-nato-summit
With great thanks to @Otto_English @peterjukes @carolecadwalla @lukeharding1968 for keeping clear heads through thick & thin. I get the distinct feeling the Tory skeletons are about to tumble out into full view, & we all owe these writers a great debt of gratitude for their work.
I must say though my favourite story is the one about time in 2014 when suspiciously wealthy wife of Putin’s ex Deputy Finance Minister paid £160K into Tory Party coffers at their Summer Party to play tennis with Boris Johnson. Yeah that’s a doozie. How Vlad must’ve chuckled!
‘Johnson has defended a £160k donation made to Conservatives by a former Russian minister's wife in return for a tennis match with him.’

“It's very important that we do not allow a miasma of suspicion about all [rich] Russians in London to be created." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43448559
Same Russian ex-Putin Minister’s wife put up another £45k to play Johnson AGAIN earlier THIS year, on Feb 25th...

‘Chernukhin’s latest £45K donation means 46-year-old has given more than £1.6m to Conservative party in 48 cash donations over past 7 years.’ https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/27/lubov-chernukhin-tories-tennis-record-donor-uk-russia
April 2019 ‘she gave £135K for dinner at luxury Goring hotel with @theresa_may & several female cabinet members.’

‘Downing Street at time was irritated that @trussliz’s breezy post revealed the reality of how the Conservative party raises money.’

JOLZ!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw2sSBmgP5z/ 
Such a fun picture! I can see why @trussliz @AmberRuddUK @carolinenokes @andrealeadsom @theresa_may & all other Cabinet Ministers couldn’t resist a little cheeky Insta action! This is place Middletons stayed before Kate married William don’t you know. Very fancy. Super expensive!
‘For all this largesse, she avoids publicity & gives no interviews – in marked contrast to the party’s other generous donor with Russian connections, Alexander Termerko – never explaining why she chooses to give so much & so noticeably.’

A kind heart? https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/britain-eu-johnson-russian/
A thing of great beauty. Short, but monumental. We can all go over it in great detail over the summer.
🕵🏽‍♂️👩🏾‍💼🕵🏿👩🏻‍💻👁🕵🏻‍♂️🍿
‘A pot of honey was sold for £20,000.’

I bet it was.
‘Publicly, industrialist & Tory Party donor Temerko presents himself as an opponent of Brexit & dissident critic of Putin. In conversations with this reporter, he’s voiced strong support for Johnson’s bid to lead Britain out of EU & praised senior Russian intelligence officials’
What these rich Russians have in common is to have emerged in gangster capitalist heyday of mid to late 1990s Russia, then made vast fortunes. Then they ‘fled’ Russia when Putin cracked down on Oligarchs. But enemies, like friends, change, & loyalties shift, especially in Russia.
‘For a while it looked as if nobody was going to bid for a dubious bust of David Cameron. In the end Alexander Temerko – major Tory donor & Russian–born British citizen – stumped up £90k, to general amazement. Temerko declined to say why he bought the bust’ https://twitter.com/TBIJ/status/484040507472240641?s=20 https://twitter.com/tbij/status/484040507472240641
‘In public, Cameron has done his best to dissociate himself from Bullingdon Club, exclusive Oxford University society to which he & Johnson belonged. The guest list, however, reveals that a new generation from the Bullingdon, plus their friends, sat at table 20. They were...’
‘Nicholas Green, an old Etonian, & George Farmer, son of Michael, Tory party co-treasurer who wasn't at the ball. Subsequently, Green & Farmer Jr reportedly joined a Bullingdon grouse shoot in South Africa, as reported by Daily Mail in August 2013. They got there by private jet.’
It’s the details I love. For eg, Dog-Whistler-in-Chief Lynton Crosby being auctioned off to be a ball-boy for wife of a shady Russian Banker who pays £160K to play tennis with Boris Johnson. It’s just so wonderfully Evelyn Waugh: the sheer unadulterated seedy greediness. Love it.
You can see why Putin has spent last four years looking like the cat who got the cream, with that swagger & ex-KGB man’s thuggish smirk. He may be a murderous racist psychopath, but he has played a fucking blinder hasn’t he? Backing Brexit, Trump, Far Right. Checkmate in 20years.
In 90s & early 2000s, he watched West revel & overreach after fall of Berlin Wall, until 9/11 led to military disasters in Afghanistan then Iraq, that in turn led to Financial collapse in 2008, & then in 2010s he begins Digital Active Measures & Influence Ops. Classic KGB styles!
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