National reserve bank

New attack on media tycoon Alexander Lebedev by Russian authorities as his bank is accused of evading at least £6.2m in tax

Media tycoon Alexander Lebedev - the pro-Western owner of The Independent and London Evening Standard newspapers - has been targeted by Russian authorities again, with his bank accused of evading at least Ј6.2 million in tax

Lunch with the FT: Alexander Lebedev

Best known in Britain as a newspaper magnate with a KGB past, the oligarch talks about his clashes with the Kremlin and Putin.

“Corrupt officials decided to put pressure on Lebedev and Novaya Gazeta”

Dmitry Muratov: "We have always had problems with authorities, but the pressure which we face today is probably the strongest. We started to face it at the end of the previous year, when more than 130 officials of the Central Bank, together with law enforcement and FSB (Federal Security Service), came to the office of Alexander Lebedev's bank."

Russian Opposition Paper Under Pressure

Russia’s best known investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta, an OCCRP partner, says its primary owner has been under increased pressure as the March presidential election nears. Novaya Gazeta’s vocal criticism of the Kremlin makes it no stranger to pressure.

Letter to Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin

On 19 December last year, addressing a meeting at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydroelectric Power Station devoted to development of the power industry, you said: “If we want to have a normal investment climate in the country, we should make it impossible to implement offshore schemes. We cannot tolerate diversion of financial resources from sectors of the economy through front firms.

The Un-Oligarchical Alexander Lebedev

Alexander Lebedev – the billionaire owner of Russia’s Novaya Gazeta and Britain’s The Independent – is leaving business for politics because he has grown tired of battling corrupt officials.

Lebedev offers to help tackle corruption

Alexander Lebedev, the owner of The Independent, has written to the head of Russia's security service offering his experience from 11 years of service with the organisation to help to expose corruption in business and the country's "power structures".

Russian police quiz Lebedev in bank probe

Russian police have questioned Alexander Lebedev, the former KGB agent, tycoon and newspaper owner, for more than three hours as part of a probe into alleged embezzlement at a bank that his business empire once controlled.

Russia's Lebedev asks Putin for help in bank probe

Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev, the owner of Britain's Independent and London Evening Standard newspapers, asked Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday to intervene in a criminal investigation linked to his bank.

Withdrawal of the "Rossiyskiy Kapital"

On 18 February the Natsionalnyy Rezervnyy Bank [National Reserve Bank] (NRB), which belongs to Aleksandr Lebedev, a Novaya Gazeta stockholder, may be closed. The formal pretext is an administrative case started by firemen who decided that the office of the NRB, located in one of the best business centres in Russia, does not meet safety requirements.