>Defence Secretary Ben Wallace received funding for a private party from a global law firm that lobbied on behalf of the sanctioned Russian bank Gazprombank – a donation defended by the UK’s Ministry of Defence as “nothing odd”, Byline Times can reveal.
>Wallace is one of four Conservative MPs with financial links to the legal giant Squire Patton Boggs, which represents Gazprombank and two other sanctioned Russian banks Sberbank and VTB Bank.
>Squire Patton Boggs has previously lobbied to lift sanctions imposed on Russia over the 2014 Ukraine crisis, and also has ties to several other lobbying groups involved in the 2016 Donald Trump and Brexit campaigns – including disgraced digital campaigning group Cambridge Analytica and US lobbying firm Goddard Gunster.
>Gazprombank is Russia’s third-largest bank, founded by the state-owned gas company Gazprom. Squire Patton Boggs’ clients include other Russian banks close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sberbank and VTB Bank.
>All three banks are top targets of Western sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine.
>Other Conservative MPs who have received funding from the law firm are Jake Berry, former Northern Powerhouse and Local Growth Minister at the Cabinet Office; Nigel Adams, Minister of State in the Cabinet Office; and former Conservative Party Co-Chairman Amanda Milling, now Minister for Asia and the Middle East in the Foreign Office.
>Data published in the parliamentary register of interests shows that Wallace, Berry, Adams and Milling each separately registered a £10,000 donation from Squire Patton Boggs to fund a “private party” which they all co-hosted.
>The donations were received on 15 December 2015 – just one day after the House of Lords approved the European Union Referendum Act, allowing Britons to vote for or against Brexit the following year.
>A Ministry of Defence spokesperson told Byline Times: “Squire Patton Boggs are an international law firm with hundreds of clients operating in over 40 countries. There is nothing odd about them hosting an event for MPs and any suggestion this equates to accepting Gazprom money is simply misleading.”
>But the financial links between Government ministers – including the UK’s Defence Secretary – and a law firm acting on behalf of Putin-linked Russian banks throws stark new light on why Britain has been slow to execute sanctions, compared to the swift action taken by other European countries.
Of all the Russian money links to Tories, this is pretty weak sauce tbh.
Why aren’t the authorities on their asses already? This is a security risk.
At what point does the country ban donations from non uk companies and persons?
Who in seats of power isn’t bought in this government
Really are a joke the Tory party, Lebedev getting a knighthood, Patel and her hostile immigration environment and taking money from Israeli that got her sacked, Johnson and his connections to Russian oligarch’s, now the defence secretary
fuking tories. anyone who voted and continuing voting for them are enablers.
When they say “nothing odd” do they mean it happens all the time so there isn’t anything unusual
Because of course he did. It’s about time that Russia report got released and we can see how sticky all their hands are.
Dear God this can not be true must not be true are all Conservative Ministers Traitors.
Your Defense Secretary?!!
Well, that’s fair, we had retire General Flynn traitor here.
11 comments
>Defence Secretary Ben Wallace received funding for a private party from a global law firm that lobbied on behalf of the sanctioned Russian bank Gazprombank – a donation defended by the UK’s Ministry of Defence as “nothing odd”, Byline Times can reveal.
>Wallace is one of four Conservative MPs with financial links to the legal giant Squire Patton Boggs, which represents Gazprombank and two other sanctioned Russian banks Sberbank and VTB Bank.
>Squire Patton Boggs has previously lobbied to lift sanctions imposed on Russia over the 2014 Ukraine crisis, and also has ties to several other lobbying groups involved in the 2016 Donald Trump and Brexit campaigns – including disgraced digital campaigning group Cambridge Analytica and US lobbying firm Goddard Gunster.
>Gazprombank is Russia’s third-largest bank, founded by the state-owned gas company Gazprom. Squire Patton Boggs’ clients include other Russian banks close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sberbank and VTB Bank.
>All three banks are top targets of Western sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine.
>Other Conservative MPs who have received funding from the law firm are Jake Berry, former Northern Powerhouse and Local Growth Minister at the Cabinet Office; Nigel Adams, Minister of State in the Cabinet Office; and former Conservative Party Co-Chairman Amanda Milling, now Minister for Asia and the Middle East in the Foreign Office.
>Data published in the parliamentary register of interests shows that Wallace, Berry, Adams and Milling each separately registered a £10,000 donation from Squire Patton Boggs to fund a “private party” which they all co-hosted.
>The donations were received on 15 December 2015 – just one day after the House of Lords approved the European Union Referendum Act, allowing Britons to vote for or against Brexit the following year.
>A Ministry of Defence spokesperson told Byline Times: “Squire Patton Boggs are an international law firm with hundreds of clients operating in over 40 countries. There is nothing odd about them hosting an event for MPs and any suggestion this equates to accepting Gazprom money is simply misleading.”
>But the financial links between Government ministers – including the UK’s Defence Secretary – and a law firm acting on behalf of Putin-linked Russian banks throws stark new light on why Britain has been slow to execute sanctions, compared to the swift action taken by other European countries.
Of all the Russian money links to Tories, this is pretty weak sauce tbh.
Why aren’t the authorities on their asses already? This is a security risk.
At what point does the country ban donations from non uk companies and persons?
Who in seats of power isn’t bought in this government
Really are a joke the Tory party, Lebedev getting a knighthood, Patel and her hostile immigration environment and taking money from Israeli that got her sacked, Johnson and his connections to Russian oligarch’s, now the defence secretary
fuking tories. anyone who voted and continuing voting for them are enablers.
When they say “nothing odd” do they mean it happens all the time so there isn’t anything unusual
Because of course he did. It’s about time that Russia report got released and we can see how sticky all their hands are.
Dear God this can not be true must not be true are all Conservative Ministers Traitors.
Your Defense Secretary?!!
Well, that’s fair, we had retire General Flynn traitor here.