The Times - UK (2020-07-21)

the times | Tuesday July 21 2020 2GM 19

News

The multimillion-pound fortune of the
Conservative Party’s largest female
donor should have been investigated
under an unexplained wealth order,
another Russian oligarch claimed in a
legal case against her husband.
Lubov Chernukhin, 48, whose hus-
band Vladimir is a former Russian min-
ister, has given more than £1.7 million to
Tory funds since 2012, including
£335,000 this year alone. Her dona-
tions include three separate gifts of
£200,000 in June and November 2019
and March this year.
The scale of donations by wealthy
people with Russian connections is ex-
pected to feature in the intelligence and
security committee’s report on Mos-
cow’s influence on British political life
when it is finally published today.
Mr and Mrs Chernukhin’s wealth
came under scrutiny in a commercial
dispute with Oleg Deripaska in the

An intelligence report on Russian
interference in British democracy is
expected to raise questions about
donations to the Conservative Party by
oligarchs and other wealthy figures.
The cross-party intelligence and
security committee will publish a 50-
page report today on illicit Russian
activities in Britain. Its release has been
repeatedly delayed by Downing Street.
The names of individual donors with
links to the Kremlin are expected to be
redacted in the report. The committee
has also prepared a classified annexe to
the document detailing intelligence
about the activities of the Russian

I

t is the birthplace of

western philosophy

and politics. Now it

has emerged that

ancient Greece also

had the first building

regulations, creating

disabled access to public

venues (David

Sanderson writes).

The ramps at healing

sanctuaries and other

buildings are, a

researcher suggests, the

earliest evidence of

ancient societies

adapting their

architecture for

disabled people.

It may lead to a

reassessment

of the

Greeks,

whose

philos-

ophers

supported

eugenics

and

allowing

disabled

people to die.

According to

a paper to be

published in

Antiquity, temples and

other

buildings

were being

built with

disability

access as

early as the

4th century

BC.

Debby Sneed,

an archaeologist

at California State

University, said that

while ramps were

common in Greek

buildings their presence

had been neglected in

research and were often

missing on plans in

scholarly articles.

She said that the

ramps had erroneously

been thought of as a

“means of conveying

sacrificial animals”. Dr

Sneed analysed the

distribution of ramps

and found they were

particularly

common at

healing

sanctuaries,

where disabled

people would

seek help from

Asclepius, the god of

medicine.

“While the provision

of access to mobility-

impaired individuals

may not have been the

exclusive function of

these ramps, it was a

primary factor in their

construction,” she

argued.

Greece would have

had many wounded

soldiers and there is

evidence that around

4BC Athens provided a

daily “disability”

allowance, Dr Sneed

wrote. Literary sources

also refer to prosthetics,

while vases from as early

as 7BC show lower body

impairments.

It is accepted that

longer ramps, such as

the 80m by 10m one

leading to the top of the

Acropolis in

Athens, were for

wheeled traffic

used in

processions, for

example. Dr

Sneed noted,

however, that the

Temple of

Asklepios at

Epidaurus had at

least 11 stone

ramps. “The

available

evidence

indicates a trend

whereby healing

sanctuaries,

which hosted

many individuals

with a range of illnesses,

injuries and conditions,

had more ramps than

non-healing

sanctuaries”.

Leading article, page 31

Ancient

Greeks had

first ramps

for disabled

The Acropolis used ramps

for processions but the

Temple of Asklepios had

disabled access and the

god Hephaestus was lame

nce of

ties

r

for

ple.

o a

to

mples and

ot

bu

w

b

d

ac

ea

4th

BC

De

an arc

at Calif

UUUniversity

while ramps

Russian ‘spy’ report puts Tory donors in spotlight

Steven Swinford Deputy Political Editor government. It will only be seen by
those with the highest levels of security
clearance.
One of the Conservative Party’s
biggest donors is Alexander Temerko,
who has worked for the Kremlin’s
defence ministry. He has given the
Tories more than £1.3 million. Mr Tem-
erko has denied being a Russian agent,
saying that he was a well-known critic
of the Russian regime. He has publicly
condemned the invasion of Ukraine.
The document also says that Russia
tried to “influence” the result of the
Scottish independence referendum but
not the result of the EU referendum, it
was reported last night.
It says that Russia’s alleged involve-

ment was “the first post-Soviet interfer-

ence in a Western democratic election”.

The report suggests that there is

“credible open-source commentary

that Russia undertook to influence the

campaign on Scottish independence”.

The document is being published

days after Dominic Raab, the foreign

secretary, claimed that it was “almost

certain” that Russia had tried to inter-

fere in the 2019 election. He said that

“Russian actors” had tried to influence

the contest by “amplifying” stolen

government papers online.

The documents — relating to trade

talks between America and the UK —

were picked up by Jeremy Corbyn, who

said they were evidence that the

Conservatives were preparing to open

up the NHS to US drug companies.

The UK, US and Canada claimed

that hackers linked to Russian intelli-

gence agencies tried to steal details of

research into coronavirus vaccines.

Andrei Kelin, Russia’s ambassador in

London, dismissed the accusations in a

BBC interview. “I do not see any point

in using this subject,” he said. “We do

not interfere at all. We do not see any

point in interference because for us,

whether it will be [the] Conservative

Party or Labour Party at the head of

this country, we will try to establish

better relations than now.”

Oligarch investigated rival’s wealth

High Court in 2018. Mr Deripaska, 51, a

billionaire who is on good terms with

the Kremlin, and Mr Chernukhin, 50,

who fled Russia in 2004 after falling out

of favour with President Putin, were at

odds over ownership of a valuable piece

of land in Moscow.

It emerged in court that Mr Deri-

paska, who hosted George Osborne,

shadow chancellor at the time, on his

yacht off Corfu in 2008, had commis-

sioned a private investigation into the

Chernukhins’ finances. He wanted to

send the report to the National Crime

Agency and urge it to investigate how

the couple came by their millions.

Unexplained wealth orders — called

McMafia powers, after a TV drama —

allow the authorities to freeze property

and other assets and require their own-

ers to explain the source of their wealth.

At the High Court in November 2018

Jonathan Crow, QC, for Mr Chernukh-

in, 50, accused Mr Deripaska of com-

missioning the report to cause trouble

for the couple in Britain. The judge

ruled in favour of Mr Chernukhin over

the property dispute but criticised the

quality of the evidence given by him, his

wife and Mr Deripaska.

The Conservatives have continued to

accept hundreds of thousands of

pounds from her since the ruling, in-

cluding £135,000 for a private dinner

with Theresa May when she was prime

minister and an auction bid of £45,

to play tennis with Boris Johnson.

Mrs Chernukhin, who gives her oc-

cupation on Companies House records

as an investment director, is a British

citizen and all her political donations

are legal. She is understood to have

been born Lubov Golubeva in Kazakh-

stan to Russian parents in 1972 and to

have had some of her education in the

United States. She has been listed as a

director of a number of companies.

Presently she is director of just one,

Capital Construction and Develop-

ment, which reported debts of £8 mil-

lion last year.

The Chernukhins have a number of

properties but their main London

home is a flat overlooking Regent’s

Park with an estimated value of more

than £7 million. It is owned through a

company registered in the British

Virgin Islands. Mr Chernukhin is

understood to have extensive

commercial property interests owned

through a number of companies. Mr

and Mrs Chernukhin could not be

reached for comment.

Sean O’Neill Chief Reporter

Lubov and Vladimir Chernukhin were

criticised by a judge in the High Court

d f theserampsitwasa

A w u p e S h T A E

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ALAMY

Hugo Rifkind, page 29

Letters, page 30

Polar bears could vanish from most of

the Arctic by the end of the century if

greenhouse gas emissions continue to

rise, a study has said.

The bears rely on sea ice to hunt

seals; when it melts they are forced on

to land where they may be unable to

find food. Each year rising tempera-

tures are lengthening the period during

which large areas of the Arctic are ice

free, so polar bears must fast for longer.

This threat to polar bears is well es-

tablished but scientists have for the first

time predicted when the different sub-

populations will begin to decline steep-

ly if the world fails to cut emissions.

They studied records of 200 bears in

the Western Hudson Bay sub-popula-

tion to calculate the number of days

that bears can fast before the survival

rates of cubs and adults start to fall.

An adult female with cubs can fast for

117 days before her milk production de-

clines, at which point her offspring may

starve. An adult male’s chances of sur-

viving decline after 200days and for a

solitary adult female after 255 days.

The scientists found some sub-popu-

lations, including those in the Hudson

Bay in Canada and Davis Strait

between Canada and Greenland,

already had low reproduction rates

because bears had to fast for longer.

Peter Molnar, lead author from the

University of Toronto Scarborough,

said: “While our projections seem dire,

the unfortunate thing is they might

even be too optimistic. We assumed

polar bears will use their available body

energy in optimal ways when fasting. If

that isn’t the case, the reality could be

worse than our projections.”

Polar bears

could die out

in decades

Ben Webster Environment Editor