", "PM's partner Carrie Symonds makes first speech since No 10 move", "Everything you need to know about Boris Johnson's fiance Carrie Symonds, who just gave birth to a baby boy", "Boris Johnson becomes UK's new prime minister", "Why Carrie Symonds is the embodiment of the Boris Johnson brand", "Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds move into Downing Street", "The Women Who Stay With Problematic Men", "Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds engaged and expecting baby", "Boris Johnson marries Carrie Symonds in secret wedding", "Boris Johnson marries Carrie Symonds at Westminster Cathedral", "Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds married in secret wedding ceremony at Westminster Cathedral", "Who is Carrie Symonds? usinesspeople born in the Soviet Union play a significant role in British business and politics. Elements of the suppressed report have now leaked out. Under its original name, the Conservative Friends of Russia, the group facilitated a ten-day, all-expenses-paid junket to Russia in 2012, paid for by the Russian tourist government agency, Rossotrudnichestvo. It has been valued at more than 300m after extensive refurbishment. A conservative think tank has called for an independent inquiry into Boris Johnson's fiance, Carrie Symonds, and her "possible influence" in government. Businesspeople born in the Soviet Union play a significant role in British business and politics. Permission was sought from the editor to go the club and speak to her. Perhaps the most high-profile London-based oligarch, thanks to his 140m purchase of Chelsea Football Club in 2003, is Roman Abramovich. Media advisor and wife of former British prime minister Boris Johnson, For other people named Carrie Johnson, see, GRO Register of Births = MAR 1988 15 449 WANDSWORTH - Caroline Louise B. Symonds, mother's maiden name = Lawrence. [37] She used to be a practising Catholic and had her son baptised into the Catholic Church. This report found that Russia had directly tried to intervene in the 2016 EU Referendum. [32][2], Symonds was previously in a relationship with The Sun journalist Harry Cole. [57], In December 2021, Politico Europe named her as one of the "disrupters" in its annual list of 28 people who will shape Europe in the year to come. His Leave.EU campaign also regularly recycled Russian racist propaganda. Read more, Editorial enquiries, please contact: [emailprotected], Commercial enquiries, please contact: [emailprotected]. This article was corrected to on 18 November 2019 when Jennifer Arcuri denied she attended the Russian Embassy Digital Barbecues. New to Byline Times? In January 2020, Whittingdale received 8,000 from Aquind Ltd, the mysterious Russia-linked company planning a billion-pound undersea electricity grid connector between Britain and France which wont reveal the identity of the party that controls it. The relationship between BP and AAR often proved acrimonious and TNK-BP boss Bob Dudley was at one stage forced to flee the country fearing for his safety. In recent years, Lebedev has come under scrutiny over his close personal ties with Boris Johnson. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson married fiance Carrie Symonds in a scaled down ceremony in Westminster Chapel Saturday that was kept secret in advance. One Conservative Party guest on the Russia trip told openDemocracy that the forums current setup had no meaningful connection to CFR but despite its rebrand to WFR, the group today still refers to itself as having been founded in 2012. openDemocracy has also obtained emails showing that in 2013, during the Tory coalition with the Liberal Democrats, Russian diplomat Sergey Nalobin attempted to organise a similar trip to Russia for senior Lib Dems. Alexander Temerko said he was no friend of Vladimir Putin. The WRF is one of a number of so-called Conservative friends of groups that have tried to draw in high-profile MPs. She went to the University of Warwick to study Art History and Theatre Studies, graduating as BA (Hons) in 2009. In March 2014, Austrian authorities arrested Firtash on a multi-million bribery rap sought by the FBI. The right-wing MP for Maldon, Margaret Thatcher acolyte and long-term Brexiter might play a get-out-of-jail card in that the registered money he received came via a cut-out for not a Russian but a Ukrainian oligarch however one so close to the Kremlin that the distinction doesnt bite. [19][20], Symonds was the result of an affair between her parents, who were both married to other people at the time. Whittingdales responsibilities at the DCMS include oversight of foreign television networks, including the Kremlins poodle network RT. The legendary oil dealmaker and former BP boss Lord Browne is executive chair of billionaire Mikhaeil Fridmans Letter One Energy group, which has a one-third stake in the oil and gas company Wintershall DEA. As he recounts in his memoir, Hunt the Banker, the KGB approached Lebedev in his final year at university in Moscow. Then, working at BBC Newsnight, I was not interested in his dalliance with Miss Whiplash but his anomaly in the registration of benefits in kind and the fact that four newspapers had sat on the story perhaps because Whittingdale was seen as pro-paper and anti-Leveson. Blavatnik has amassed a vast business empire, including Warner Music. He has strongly denied that he is a Kremlin agent. It is high time that these groups were brought out of the shadows, properly regulated, and that the public are able to have far greater insight into how they operate and who is behind them.. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point. We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. Activities of the Conservative Friends of Russia, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Spectator article 'Tory pro-Russia lobbying group disbands', Russian Embassy hosts Conservative Friends of Russia, "Conservative Friends of Russia under fire for launch after Pussy Riot verdict | Politics", "British Arctic Convoys veterans should be rewarded; UK Edition", "Lobbyist expresses delight at Arctic Convoy medal news: Voice of Russia - UK Edition", "In Plain Sight: The Kremlin's London Lobby", "I'm a victim of Russian smear campaign, says MP photographed in underwear", "UK Russia Relations: An interview with the Chairman of the Westminster Russia Forum", "LGBT RIGHTS IN RUSSIA with guest speakers PETER | InterLaw Diversity Forum for LGBT Networks", "Westminster Russia Forum: Ushakov medal presentation ahead of G8 summit | PoliticsHome | Press Release | PoliticsHome", "The British Merchant Navy - Old Friends Plus", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Westminster_Russia_Forum&oldid=1146571163, 2012 establishments in the United Kingdom, Organisations based in the City of Westminster, Articles needing additional references from December 2016, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 25 March 2023, at 18:12. The mansion in Londons upmarket Highgate was bought for 50m in 2008 by the family of the Russian fertiliser baron Andrey Guryev, through an offshore company called Safran Holdings, located in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands. Firtashs closeness to the Kremlin, his association with Trump consigliere-turned-convict Paul Manafort and his arrest warrant issued by the FBI are facts that can be reported and cannot be denied. Farages support for Putin was vocal until recently and he has twice described the Russian President as the most impressive world leader. 10 intervened,[60] although Walters says that he stands by the story.[61]. We also introduce new voices of colour in Our Lives Matter. As Otto English has confirmed on Byline Times, his visits to Lebedevs infamous Tuscan parties on one occasion as Foreign Secretary without his security detail have spooked the spooks. 2. Last October, Twitter closed down3,613 new Internet Research Agency accounts. I feel so angry that he pleaded not guilty and made us go through the pain of giving evidence in court". [34] On 16 August 2019, she made her first public appearance since entering 10 Downing Street, when she addressed what she called the "gigantic" climate crisis. E.g. The group hosted events in London and at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham in 2012. Tymofienko is now working on an 800,000 scheme promoting intellectual property in Ukraine at QMC London funded by the British Government. The SNP is calling on Villiers to return the money. While direct contacts between Conservatives and Russian officials appear to have chilled when Nalobin was effectively expelled in 2015, intermediaries still made approaches. The forum originally launched as Conservative Friends of Russia in 2012, a political interest group for those with an interest in Russian politics, business, history and culture, with the aim of strengthening . The Bow Group said No 10 needed to. Whittingdale was accompanied by an office aide, Carrie Symonds, who was promoted to special advisor when he moved into the Cabinet in 2015. All have homes in London, with several visiting regularly from Moscow. The groups act as a conduit between the party and certain countries or regions. The company is seeking to build a controversial 1.2 billion electricity cable connecting Normandy with Lovedean in Hampshire as anxieties about the resilience of the British national grid continue. A gangster with a conviction for firearms was also reportedly going out with King at the same time as Whittingdale and was trying to sell tapes of King talking about what she did with the then Culture Secretary. Whatever youre interested in, theres a free openDemocracy newsletter for you. Alexander Lebedev (left) and his son Evgeny (right), with the former chancellor George Osborne in September last year, when Osborne was editor of the Evening Standard. But the woman known to . [33], She began an affair with British politician Boris Johnson, then Foreign Secretary, in 2018 while he was still married to his second wife, Marina Wheeler. Russian authorities have accused him of a massive fraud. Lebdevev plus Carrie Johnson a founder member of Conservative Friends of Russia It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. That same month, Tymofienko was photographed with another ex-Soviet oligarch, Alexander Temerko, and Conservative minister Philip Hammond at the Tory Party conference in Birmingham. Rajan, who has denied doing so, killed the story before it was put to King. We scrambled so hard to get our BBC Newsnight story on that night, running the extraordinary statement drafted by Carrie Symonds, that I mispronounced dominatrix much to the amusement of then-editor Ian Katz. In late 2017, Byline revealed that the Maltese-born professor Joseph Mifsud, named as a Russian intermediary in the Mueller Investigation, was telling colleagues he was going to meet Boris Johnson to discuss Brexit. In 2018, he sold a majority stake in Waterstones to a hedge fund. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations. But that pales in comparison to the estimated price tag on Witanhurst, often referred to as Britains most expensive home. Friends with the Russians Evgeny's father, Alexander Lebedev, was a KGB agent at the Russian embassy in London in the 1980s, later working for its successor agency, the FSB. Firtash posted 105 million bail money, the largest get-out-jail note in Austrian history. Sergei Roldugin appeared in the Panama Papers. [54], Conservative MP Caroline Nokes asserted that Carrie Johnson's influence has been exaggerated for sexist purposes;[53] she has been likened to both Lady Macbeth and Marie Antoinette ("Carrie Antoinette") by her critics. But, for the moment, all we are hearing from the Culture Minister is a stone-dead silence. He introduced him to the prime minister, David Cameron. According to the Observer, he was keen to get involved in fundraising for the Conservative Party and wanted to know of the rivalry between David Cameron and Boris Johnson. Brian Latham reports on the intelligence leak that reveals the extent of Putin's plan to create a 'confederation' of friendly states across the Sahel through his proxy Prigozhin, Sam Bright reveals how the Russian Ambassador to the UK claimed the owner of the Independent and Evening Standard had much contributed to strengthening Russian-British relations, Mark Temnycky looks at the turbulence in Tbilisi, Georgians desire to join the EU, and the authoritarian drift of the ruling Dream Party, Sunak's warm welcome of the far right Italian Prime Minister exposes the increasingly authoritarian direction of his own Government, reports Adam Bienkov, Natalia Kogut and Maren Rohe explore the challenges Ukrainian refugees face accessing healthcare, housing and work under the Government's Homes for Ukraine scheme, We need a diverse media landscape that recognises the added responsibility of operating in a post-conflict society, writes Emma DeSouza, Byline Media Holdings Ltd, Byline Times &, Russia Rolls Out the Red Carpet for Tommy Robinson, Wagner in Africa: Russias Other Empire in the Making Bloodier than Ukraine, Georgian Government Drops Foreign Agents Bill, but the Fight Against Kremlin Influence Continues, Rishi Sunaks New Far-Right Ally and the International Authoritarian Elite, Stereotyped and Belittled: Ukrainians Suffer from UK Asylum Policy, Shifting Political Landscape on Island of Ireland Requires More Cross-Border Journalism. She has lots of deeply loyal politico and journo friends. In February, Chernukhin spent 45,000 on another game of tennis with Johnson and Ben Elliot, the Tories co-chair. Meanwhile, Russian-born oligarchs remain close to the Prime Minister and his entourage. Another rich oligarch born in the Soviet Union, Alexander Temerko, has contributed more than 1 million to the Conservatives since he gained British citizenship in 2011 and also financed Johnsons leadership campaign. Peter Jukes reports on more revelations about the transatlantic right-wing network, and why the Government is withholding key information on the former Prime Ministers role, The former Prime Minister feared his discussions with the US President about privatising the NHS would cause "mischief" if they became public, according to a new book, The Home Secretary is a keynote speaker at the conference, which has previously hosted Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban, reports Karam Bales, Natalia Kogut and Maren Rohe explore the challenges Ukrainian refugees face accessing healthcare, housing and work under the Government's Homes for Ukraine scheme, Anthony Yates looks at Rishi Sunak's promises over inflation which might help him cynically suppress public pay demands but do nothing to address the roots of our economic malaise, Exclusive analysis by Byline Times uncovers the staggering amounts being paid by forces for public and employer liability claims, Byline Media Holdings Ltd, Byline Times &, indicted for election interference in the US, 3,613 new Internet Research Agency accounts. Shortly afterwards, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who had served as a minister under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and was then chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, resigned from the group, saying he had been unhappy for some time about the group's behaviour and "political direction". [2][8] In July 2019, Johnson became prime minister and both he and Symonds officially moved into the flat above 11 Downing Street. Two years later, at the UKIP Conference in October 2015, a senior embassy official, Alexander Udod, approached Farages new funder, Arron Banks, and invited him to meet the Russian Ambassador too. The Standard office is around the corner from where Lebedev worked in the 1980s as an undercover spy based at the Soviet embassy. [27][23] It was reported that she was asked to leave her post as director of communications, with Conservative Party sources in the Daily Mail newspaper claiming that the firing was due to poor performance and allegations of significant unjustified expenses claims. This breach was referred to the National Crime Agency by the Information Commissioner, Elisabeth Denham. Whittingdale, then Culture Secretary, was in the room and appeared to take the gag well as he roared with laughter. [10], The group was officially launched in late 2012 and has since gone on to host numerous events throughout the UK, covering a variety of topics such as LGBT rights in Russia, with guest speakers Peter Tatchell and Claire Harvey. The forums organisers are overwhelmingly London-based, with business interests in Russia. CARRIE Symonds revealed to her friends that she and Boris Johnson are engaged and expecting a baby in a heartfelt Instagram post. All Rights Reserved. In 2014, he fired its editor, Galina Timchenko, after she published an interview with a Ukrainian nationalist. After a power struggle, AAR eventually sold its half in the venture to Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft. Now a British citizen and major donor to the Conservative Party to the tune of 1.3 million, Temerko was born in Soviet Ukraine and became head of a Russian state arms company before coming to the UK in 2011. Had Russia paid for a social media campaign of this scale, the committee estimated, it would have cost between 1.4 and 4.14 million. [2] She was brought up by her mother in East Sheen, South West London, and between 1999 and 2006 attended Godolphin and Latymer School, a private day school for girls. They say he let her see confidential documents in his ministerial Red Box, texted her photos from Chequers, and was asked to leave the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel after mutual drunken heavy petting. [23] Symonds was present when Whittingdale and others launched Conservative Friends of Russia (later called the Westminster Russia Forum and disbanded in March 2022) and has attended several of its meetings. The WRF, which loudly echoes official lines from Moscow, has links with numerous Conservative MPs and other senior UK political figures. (Symonds now resides in Number 10 with Boris Johnson). Although the WRF calls itself a think tank, there is no record of any research ever published by the group. In 2016, however, he wrote a column in the Evening Standard defending Vladimir Putin after the Russian presidents close friend Sergei Roldugin appeared in the Panama Papers. Please check individual images for licensing details. Their financial clout affords members of this select group considerable influence and access to Britains professional and ruling classes. It tried to fuel social divisions, including religious tensions, in the aftermath of the Westminster, Manchester, London Bridge and Finsbury Park terror attacks, it stated. At previous such events, dozens of speakers have urged stronger ties to the Putin government. A group trip to Moscowattracted controversy in 2012when it emerged that the Russian diplomat liaising with Conservative Friends of Russia was the son of a top-ranking Kremlin spy. Following a week in which Russia and its links to the UK have been in the news, the Guardian has looked into the impact of Soviet-born men and women on recent UK public life. [35][36], On 29 February 2020, Symonds and Boris Johnson announced that they had become engaged in late 2019 and were expecting their first child together in early summer. There is always an in-crowd of top-notch aides and these days, they range from Josh Grimstone, 28, the photogenic, waspish protg of Carrie Symonds, now an adviser to Michael Gove.Grimstone's . The controversial trip attracted significant adverse coverage and, after a further string of scandals, a number of Tory MPs who had been patrons all resigned, including Robert Buckland, Nigel Evans and former foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind. February 29, 2020 at 3:56 p.m. EST. The forum originally launched as Conservative Friends of Russia in 2012, a political interest group for those with an interest in Russian politics, business, history and culture, with the aim of strengthening relations between the British and Russian communities. Lucas, a journalist who was involved in calls to dissolve the Conservative Friends of Russia in 2013, has called its return a mushroom sprouting on top of a compost heap. Could he be their unwitting asset? [55] Writing in The Sunday Times, Marie Le Conte disagreed that such criticism is sexist. This group was launched in the Russian Embassy's gardens in August 2012 by Yakovenko and Nalobin, and attended by senior Conservatives such as the then chair of the DCMS Committee, and soon-to-be Culture Minister, John Whittingdale, who was the group's honorary vice president. The connections between Putins anti-EU agenda and Brexit politicians go much deeper. Until this point, Whittingdale had not commented on the Byline pieces or an article in Private Eye. Borodin denies this and says hes the victim of a politically motivated witch-hunt. The payment was made by Henley Concierge, a firm registered to a cottage on Borodins 120m country estate near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Labour Leader Keir Starmer has asked whether Britain should ban television channel RT (formerly Russia Today).
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