The Tories sold a game of tennis with Boris Johnson for £ 90,000 to the wife of an ally of Vladimir Putin, reveals The Sun.
Lubov Chernukhine paid half the price at the Conservative Party’s lavish annual black-and-white fundraising ball on Tuesday night.
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She is married to former Russian finance minister Vladimir Chernukhin, who served under Putin in the early 2000s before being appointed chairman of a state bank.
The match with Mr Johnson and Tory Co-Chair Ben Elliott was the featured prize in the traditional auction to raise funds for the party.
But a source who was at the Tories’ fundraising ball in Battersea, south London, said Mr Johnson “was not particularly keen on auctioning himself off.”
Ms Chernukhin paid £ 45,000 for a place on the pitch with the Prime Minister.
She had already paid for a £ 160,000 tennis match with Mr Johnson and David Cameron when he was Prime Minister in 2014.
At last year’s auction she won the honor of entertaining Theresa May after donating £ 135,000.
Ms Chernukhin is a British citizen and lives in London.
A Tory spokesperson said: “All donations will be reported correctly and transparently to the Election Commission, published by it, and will be fully in accordance with the law. “
