Boris Johnson has been mocked for playing tennis and partying with Russian oligarchs ahead of the illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Labour MP Matt Western pointed the finger at the Prime Minister in the House of Commons about the company he has kept previously.
The Warwick and Leamington MP asked Dominic Raab, who stepped in for Johnson at Prime Minister's Questions, what first attracted the PM to the rich businessmen.
In reply the Deputy Prime Minister attempted to defend his boss by saying he was a "very social individual".
Since Vladimir Putin's war planes and tanks rolled into Ukraine late last month Johnson has faced questions about some of his relationships with wealthy Russians.
During PMQs, Western asked Raab: "When it comes to judging a person, it's often done by the company that they keep.
"When it comes to tennis, the Prime Minister enjoys the company and backhanders of Lubov Chernukhin.
"When it came to celebrating the election victory, the Prime Minister prioritised the party hosted by the former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev.
"He has a great many others, such as Viktor Fedotov and Alex Temerko as friends.
"Can he therefore tell us what first attracted the Prime Minister to the billionaire Russian oligarchs?"
Raab replied: "I wasn't quite sure where he was going at the beginning of his question, but what I can tell him, of course, the Prime Minister is not just a very social individual.
"He wants this country to be open to the world.
"We were the government, he was the Prime Minister and I was the Foreign Secretary that introduced the Sergei Magnitsky sanctions.
"Human Rights sanctions, asset freezes and visa bans not just on Russians, where we have evidence of wrongdoing, but also the murders ofJamal Khashoggi, and also the persecutors of the Myanmar minority, and many others."
Earlier in PMQs Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner asked Raab about the appointment of media mogul Evgeny Levedev to the Lords.
She asked if Johnson "ever asked anyone to urge the security services to revise, reconsider or withdraw their assessment of Lord Lebedev of Hampton and Siberia".
Rayner added: "What I do know better is the central duty of any Government is to keep the British people safe.
"There are now widespread reports that the Prime Minister did not accept warnings from our own intelligence services, granting a Russian oligarch, the son and business partner of a KGB spy, a seat here in this Parliament.
"It shouldn't matter if such a warning was about a close personal friend of the Prime Minister. It shouldn't matter if he gave the Prime Minister thousands of pounds of gifts. And it shouldn't matter how much champagne and caviar he serves.
"There is no ifs or buts when it comes to the safety of the British people. So I ask the Deputy Prime Minister, can he guarantee that the Prime Minister never asked anyone to urge the security services to revise, reconsider or withdraw their assessment of Lord Lebedev of Hampton and Siberia?"
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