While the average Russian oligarch was flaunting fur and partying hard in the
ski resort of Courchevel earlier this month, Alexander Lebedev went on
holiday to the desert. He sat there barefoot, in shorts and a T-shirt,
surrounded by sand and not a lot else. Scorning Alpine excess, he professed:
“Personally I prefer an educational break.”
Quite what he learnt from staring at the sky amid the dunes remains obscure,
but two things seem clear: first, he is far from the typical billionaire
minted in Moscow’s Wild East; and second, during his retreat to the
wilderness he decided to press ahead with plans to acquire the London
newspaper the Evening Standard.
For a former KGB spy to buy a newspaper owned by the 4th Viscount Rothermere,
the proprietor of the Daily Mail, might seem remarkable. Nevertheless, a
sale appeared close yesterday. As lawyers were haggling over subclauses, a
source with knowledge of proceedings said: “Details are still being
resolved, but a deal looks more and more likely. There seems to be an upside
for both principals.”
Rothermere would offload a newspaper believed to be losing £10m or more a
year, which is why the rumoured purchase price is just £1. And Lebedev, who
likes to engage in politics, would add to his media holdings and get a
public platform outside Russia.
Not that he intends to interfere, of course. Last week the billionaire vowed
that he would be an “absolutely” hands-off proprietor, and some who know him
expected him to be true to his word. “There is nothing sinister in his wish
to buy the paper – no hidden agenda,” said a friend of the tycoon. “It’s not
a lot of money by Russian standards and it’s about kudos. For him, it’s hip
to buy a London paper. It’s good for his image.”
On the other hand, in a blog posting on December 27, Lebedev made a curious
claim among several predictions for 2009. “One of the oldest and most famous
newspapers in Europe will be sold to a Russian,” he wrote. “It will be a
step towards creating an international media resource, which will counter
the antiliberal tendencies of increased authoritarianism in the world.”
Cripes. Is he Nostradamovich or could he have been referring to the Evening
Standard, founded in 1827?
One of the most intriguing aspects of Lebedev is his playfulness and
complexity. Sometimes you never quite know whether he is joking.
He likes to say he is not as rich as people think, describing himself as a
“potato grower”, often wearing jeans and Converse trainers (sometimes with
no laces), and complaining about his inclusion in Forbes magazine’s list of
the richest people in the world. Yet Forbes estimated that in 2008 he was
worth $3.1 billion and was one of the 400 richest people. Even if, as
Lebedev claims, he has lost a lot in the credit crunch, he is hardly down to
his last spud.
He is happy to be seen as a liberal independent who voices criticism of the
Kremlin. Yet Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister and former
president, has never moved against Lebedev in the way that he has against
other oligarchs and irritants.
“He’s a bit of a maverick, Alexander,” said one of Moscow’s tycoons who has
known Lebedev since the early 1990s. “It’s true that he says things the
other oligarchs would not dare utter, especially when he publicly criticises
the government. On the other hand, this being Russia, it would be a mistake
to think of him as an opposition figure. In my view he’s closer to those in
power than he likes to admit publicly.
“In Putin’s Russia there is no way someone the Kremlin dislikes would be
allowed to keep the kinds of assets Lebedev has. Just take his Aeroflot
stake, for instance. It’s a state airline. Who are you kidding about being
in opposition?”
At the same time, Lebedev is close to Mikhail Gorbachev, who is seen as a
friend of the West, goes to enormous trouble to raise funds for charity and
is planning a memorial in Russia to the victims of the Soviet gulags.
So who is this guy: tinker, tailor, media mogul, philanthropist or spy?
Now 49, Lebedev was born into a privileged family of Soviet academics. His
mother was an English-language teacher at one of Moscow’s most prestigious
universities and his father was an engineering professor.
He went to some of the Soviet Union’s best schools and graduated from the
elite Institute of International Relations, where he studied economics. From
there he joined the KGB’s Foreign Intelligence Academy in 1983 and clearly
showed early promise. He was soon posted to London.
Contacts he made there led him into business back in Russia; in the chaotic
aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse he built a banking empire before
expanding into other sectors, such as airlines and media.
“It doesn’t matter how smart you are,” said one businessman who knows Lebedev.
“In Russia, to become as successful as Lebedev has, one must have serious
connections, either in politics or in intelligence, or both. His businesses
have received backing and support in the right places.”
In 2003 he ran for the mayoralty of Moscow and for a seat in the state Duma.
He failed to become mayor but was elected an MP. Since then he has become
increasingly populist, criticising other oligarchs, including Roman
Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club, for failing to do enough for
ordinary Russians. “If a person buys air-planes, yachts and football clubs
abroad, who is going to like this?” he once said. “Some somehow spend [their
riches] only on personal consumption, but others somehow try to make the
residents of this country the beneficiaries of this.”
He and his son Evgeny (pronounced Yevgeny) became known in Britain after
hosting, and paying for, charity balls that raised money for the Raisa
Gorbachev Foundation, which provides treatment for children with cancer in
Russia and elsewhere.
Father and son, who are only 20 years apart, get on well and have been known
to hit the town together. Evgeny is sometimes portrayed as a playboy - he
was once linked to the former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and is now
reportedly dating the actress Joely Richardson - who is interested not so
much in the global battle against authoritarianism as London nightspots such
as Annabel's and Boujis.
The image is not entirely fair. Evgeny is also an entrepreneur with interests
in fashion, films and restaurants, as well as being an art buff. One friend
recalls admiring a sculpture on a tomb in the Vatican when his mobile rang.
“It was Evgeny, and he knew all about the artist,” said the friend. “He’s
really very knowledgeable.”
The Lebedevs and their bid for the Standard seem to be welcomed by at least
some powers at the newspaper. On Friday it ran a large and positive feature
about Russians in London, complete with some handy translations. They
included the phrase “A futbol’niy klub Chelsea takzhe prodayost-sya”: “Is
Chelsea football club for sale, too?”.
In the world of espionage, the great fear is of infiltration by a double
agent. Those of a feverish imagination might ask: could this be Lebedev? Is
the former KGB man out to get a toehold in the western media for purposes
that will become clear only later?
The less excitable say that’s far too John le Carré; and Lebedev has long
played down his spying, suggesting it involved little more than reading
newspapers, including the Standard.
Just how multifaceted the billionaire is, however, was apparent at the launch
party of the Russian version of Tatler last September, a bling-filled bash
on a boat on the Moscow river. It took place shortly after conflict had
broken out between Russia and its former republic Georgia.
Lebedev criticised the Russian government - but also castigated the western
press for failing to understand Russia. “The reason we are mistrusted
is that our political system is wrong but, on the other side, I think
there’s too many wrong things said about Russia,” he told one guest.
“Everybody in the world says, ‘This is the old, aggressive, Soviet-style
Russia now attacking a small democratic and very peaceful state.’ I think
that Russia had no other way to behave. We mishandled this from the point of
view of propaganda, of explaining our position; and with the West - they
should be a bit more objective.”
It is also notable how Lebedev reacted on the one known occasion when his
interests clashed with those of Putin. When a small Russian tabloid that
Lebedev owned published a story alleging that Putin was having an affair
with an Olympic gymnast, Putin was furious. Both he and the gymnast denied
the claim - and Lebedev reacted by closing the paper.
Even those who have spent some time with Lebedev find him hard to pin down.
Patrick Forbes, a film director who made a documentary about Russian
oligarchs, believes he’s an opportunist, not an ideologue. “He’s a man who
delights in game-playing,” said Forbes. “I don’t think his KGB past is so
significant. If you were clever and sophisticated and had languages, you had
few options other than the KGB in Soviet Russia. I don’t think it speaks of
any deep-seated suspicion of the West, or political belief.
“Like Abramovich, he isn’t getting into English society just for
respectability. It’s for safety, too, as visibility in the West makes it
more tricky for Putin, or anyone else, to attack him or take him down.”
Edward Lucas, author of The New Cold War, is more cautious. “Although the
financial crisis has hit the Russian super-rich hard, it’s relative,” he
said. “Rich British people are not going over to Russia buying newspapers.
What we are seeing is a rich Russian, of whose motives we can never be
completely certain, making an acquisition that will give him access to one
of the citadels of British public life.” Such uncertain motives raise the
intriguing prospect of Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, ordering an
investigation into Lebedev’s proposed purchase on public interest grounds.
Such discretionary powers were granted to ministers after the row over
whether Richard Desmond, who owns a number of top-shelf magazines, was a
“fit and proper person” to buy the Express newspaper titles.
On his blog last month the enigmatic Lebedev made a number of other
prognostications, as well as his one about a Russian buying a venerable
newspaper. “Hugo Chavez [president of Venezuela] will fall out of power,” he
wrote. “Victor Yushchenko [president of Ukraine] will be declared insane.
Barack Obama will solve the economic crisis in the USA.” And there was one
other prediction too: “A Lebedev will leave the Forbes list and become an
ordinary citizen, a small and medium-scale entrepreneur.”
Playful or not?
Additional reporting: Giles Hattersley and Anna Mikhailova
