News

Please do not post anything from The Independent or Evening Standard. It's owned by Russians who could have links to KGB/FSB.

Evgeny Lebedev is a shareholder of The Independent (41%) and Evening Standard (63%). He is a Russian oligarch, son of Alexander Lebedev who is, according to Wikipedia, a "Russian businessman, and has been referred to as one of the Russian oligarchs. Until 1992, he was an officer in the First Chief Directorate (Foreign Intelligence) of the Soviet Union′s KGB and later one of the KGB's successor-agencies, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR)." Alexander's net worth is ~$3 billion.

Alexander Lebedev was a member of the state Duma in 2003-2007, had connections with Gorbachev (Radio Liberty had an article on their website where they mentioned that Gorbachev awarded scientists from the toxicology laboratory where poisons are produced to kill "enemies of the people", but I can't find it now, so it can be false). He was recently sanctioned by Canada (under number 820; https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/international_relations-relations_internationales/sanctions/consolidated-consolide.aspx?lang=eng).

At that moment future PM Boris Johnson was with Evgeny Lebedev at the party in Italian villa. Nobody knows what they exactly were doing there. And when Johnson was a PM, he nominated Lebedev for a peerage in 2020, giving him a seat in the Upper House for life at House of Lords.

P.S.: Evgeny Lebedev was also an owner of London Live TV channel, it's was closed on January 2025.

P.S. #2: Evgeny Lebedev "maintained friendship with Boris Johnson since the late 2000s, with Lebedev's Evening Standard endorsing Johnson as the Mayor of London. Johnson has been reported to have attended vodka and caviar parties hosted by Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev in the UK and Italy throughout the 2010s."

P.S. #3: That show with Brexit in United Kingdom was when Boris Johnson was a Prime Minister. Back then, there were advertising campaign on buses, like "we just giving away to EU 350 million pounds and they give us nothing". It seems that was a lie.

Sources and some news articles:

1. "Italy ‘was monitoring Lebedev villa at time of Boris Johnson's visit. Intelligence service believed property was being used for espionage purposes, documentary claims" - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jun/26/italy-was-monitoring-lebedev-villa-at-time-of-boris-johnson-visit-documentary-claims
2. "Morning after: Boris Johnson recovers from Lebedev’s exotic Italian party. Exclusive: New prime minister refuses to say if he abandoned security for 2018 night in billionaire’s castle" - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/26/boris-johnson-security-evgeny-lebedev-perugia-party
3. "Lebedev could lose House of Lords seat as Labour peer launches bid to throw him out" - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/21/evgeny-lebedev-peerage/
4. Alexander Lebedev on Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Lebedev
5. "Alexander Lebedev - OpenSanctions" - https://www.opensanctions.org/entities/Q370787/
6. "Consolidated Canadian Autonomous Sanctions List" - https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/international_relations-relations_internationales/sanctions/consolidated-consolide.aspx?lang=eng
7. "London Live (TV channel)" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Live_(TV_channel)
8. "Evening Standard" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evening_Standard
9. "The Independent" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independent
10. "Boris Johnson and Evgeny Lebedev: a decade of politics, parties and peerages" - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/21/parties-politics-peerages-boris-johnson-evgeny-lebedev-friendship
11. "Spooking the Spooks: Media Complicity and Security Concerns over Lebedev and Johnson" - https://bylinetimes.com/2019/10/25/spooking-the-spooks-media-complicity-and-security-concerns-over-lebedev-and-johnson/
12. "The Boris Johnson Brexit Bus Lie of £350m" - https://conversion-uplift.co.uk/brexit/the-boris-johnson-brexit-bus-lie-of-350m/