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LONDON - Britain's Conservative Party has been rocked by claims that a senior MP tried to solicit an illegal £50,000 ($137,165) political donation from Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.
Shadow chancellor (finance minister) George Osborne has been embarrassed by revelations about a series of meetings with Russia's richest man, including two on his yacht in Greece.
The British financier Nathaniel Rothschild made the sensational claims in the Times newspaper, saying that Osborne andthe Conservative Party's chief executive, Andrew Feldman, discussed Deripaska's making a donation to the Tories two months ago.
Rothschild also claimed Feldman suggested Deripaska could channel the money through one of his British companies, despite laws banning political donations from foreign nationals.
Osborne, who ironically is close friends with Rothschild, has strongly denied ever asking Deripaska to make a donation or receiving one from him.
Amid a storm of publicity, Osborne released a statement admitting meeting Deripaska four times in one weekend at Rothschild's Corfu villa and on the Russian's yacht, the Queen K, last August.
Osborne said he was invited, with Britain's new Business Secretary and another friend of Rothschild's, Peter Mandelson, on to Deripaska's $220 million yacht on August 22 but there was no talk of donations.
The statement stressed that "at no point did Mr Osborne or Mr Feldman solicit or ask for a donation, suggest ways of channelling a donation or express any wish to meet with Mr Deripaska to discuss donations".
- AAP
