LONDON 24 Jul (ANA) - A Cabinet minister has defended accepting donations from wealthy individuals with links to Russia and President Vladimir Putin, insisting the benefactors are "British citizens".

 

It comes after The Times reported that 14 Cabinet ministers and members of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), which published its long-awaited report into Russian interference in British democracy this week, had taken money from figures linked to Russia.

 

The committee's report warned that unnamed Kremlin-linked figures had given money to UK political parties in a move that could see them deployed to "assist" Moscow.

 

The Times listed Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis as having personally received £25,000 from Lubov Chernukhin, a banker and the wife of Mr Putin's former deputy finance minister, and £23,000 from Alexander Temerko, a former chief of a Russian arms company.

 

To effectively make the case we should treat some parts of British society, some British citizens, different to others is inappropriate, it's wrong

 

Mrs Chernukhin is said to have previously placed a winning bid of £160,000 at a 2014 Tory fundraiser to play a doubles game of tennis with Boris Johnson and then prime minister David Cameron.

 

Former party chairman Mr Lewis said the donations given to him were "properly declared".

 

The Cabinet minister told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think we need to be fairly clear about this so we don't get the facts wrong – these are British citizens.

 

"They are properly declared, we do not accept funds from foreign nationals.

 

"These are British citizens and I would absolutely defend the right of any British citizen, including the people you've outlined who have donated to myself and others, to play their full part in our democracy.(ANA)

FA/ANA/24 July 2020--------