A top official at a sanctioned Russian bank has given the Conservative Party more than £44,000 since 2018, openDemocracy can reveal.
It comes two days after VTB Bank was handed a “preposterous” 30-day reprieve from UK sanctions.
The UK government clamped down on VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank, on the day Russia invaded Ukraine – 24 February. But the following day, the Treasury unit handling sanctions quietly issued a licence allowing VTB a month’s grace period to wind down operations.
