A DIPLOMAT STATIONED AT the embassy of the Russian Federation in London proposed to channel Russian funds to the British Conservative Party, according to a formal complaint made by a Conservative Party activist.
The information was
reportedly
disregarded by Britain’s counterintelligence agency, the Security
Service (MI5), and has now been filed as a complaint with the
Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT). Established in 2000, the IPT is an
independent judicial body that handles public complaints about the
British intelligence services.
The source of the complaint is Sergei
Cristo, a former reporter with the World Service of the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and longtime Conservative Party
organizer. Cristo’s allegations center on the Conservative Friends of
Russia (CFR), a high-profile lobby group founded by prominent
Conservative Party parliamentarians, including Nigel Evans, Andrew
Rosindell, John Whittingdale and Robert Buckland. The CFR’s first
honorary president was Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who served as Foreign
Secretary under Conservative Prime Minister John Major.
The founding of CFR in 2012 was
celebrated at a lavish outdoor reception hosted by the Russian
Ambassador to London, Alexander Yakovenko. It was followed by an
all-expenses-paid trip to Russia, organized by the Russian embassy, for a
group of select CFR members. Among them were prominent Euroskeptics,
who later became leading figures in the campaign that resulted in
Britain’s exit from the European Union. A few years later, the group was
renamed the Westminster Russia Forum (WRF). In 2022, following the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, the WRF disbanded altogether.
During the CFR’s early days, Cristo says
he was approached by Sergey Nalobin, first secretary of the Russian
embassy’s political section. According to Cristo, Nalobin was interested
in Cristo’s role as a volunteer in the finance department of the
Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ). Known also as the
Conservative Central Office, the CCHQ operates as the head office of the
British Conservative Party. Cristo claims
that Nalobin told him of his intention to introduce CCHQ officials to
“Russian companies who would donate money to the Conservative party” —a
proposition that was illegal under British law.
Cristo was subsequently informed by
expatriate Russian journalists that Nalobin was in all likelihood
connected to the Russian intelligence services through his father, a
Soviet KGB general who retired as a senior official in the Federal
Security Service (FSB). Nalobin’s brother, Viktor, also worked for the
FSB at the time, according to Cristo. He also claims to have been told
by Russian intelligence defector Oleg Gordievsky that Nalobin was an
undercover Russian intelligence officer.
Cristo contacted MI5 with information
about Nalobin’s offer. This resulted in a meeting with two MI5 officers,
in which Cristo claims he was “advised to cease contact” with the
Russian diplomat. He did not pursue the issue further. That, however,
changed in 2020, when Cristo came across the Russia report
of the Intelligence and Security Committee of the British Parliament.
The report, the outcome of a two-year investigation of Russian political
influence campaigns in Britain, criticized MI5 for having ignored
“credible evidence” of Russian efforts to interfere in British political
life.
At that point, Cristo contacted the
Conservative chair the Intelligence and Security Committee, Julian
Lewis, and shared his story. Lewis advised him to file a formal
complaint to the IPT. British newspaper The Observer, which reported Cristo’s efforts to publicize Nalobin’s activities, said
last week that the information shared by Cristo may contain
“potentially explosive new evidence that confirms [the Intelligence and
Security Committee’s] findings”.
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