Lebedev Snr’s charity closes following Canada sanctions

ALEXANDER LEBEDEV’S charity is to close down after the billionaire was sanctioned in Canada.

Mr Lebedev, a former KGB agent, resigned from his position as a director of the Lebedev Foundation on May 24, ahead of the organisation being shut.

He was struck with a visa ban and an asset freeze in Canada earlier this month over his links to the Kremlin.

The Lebedev Foundation is described on the Charity Commission’s website as backing a range of worthy causes, including the arts, healthcare, relief of poverty and child cancer support provided through the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation.

The organisation had total income and total expenditure of £79 respectively for the year to June 2021, according to the commission’s website.

Lord Lebedev, Alexander’s son; and the foundation’s secretary, Alastair Tulloch, have recently applied for the operation to be struck off and dissolved, separate documents published at Companies House on May 27 show.

Mr Lebedev, who bought the Independent and Evening Standard newspapers in 2010 before shifting ownership to Lord Lebedev, resigned from his position as a director of Independent Print Limited on May 22.

The Telegraph called attention to Alexander Lebedev’s links to Independent Print Ltd on May 21.

Independent Print Ltd provided digital publishing services to the Independent and Evening Standard, according to statements filed in September 2020 with Companies House.

Mr Lebedev’s resignations will dial up the pressure on Boris Johnson, who has faced mounting scrutiny over his decision to hand a peerage to his son Evgeny. The Prime Minister has been urged to release more information over his reasons for the appointment.

Lord Lebedev is a friend of Mr Johnson, who has been the subject of claims that the security services had raised concerns about him with Downing Street. The peer has denied posing a security risk and pointed to his philanthropic work as the reason for his appointment to the House of Lords.

Lord Lebedev, who has dual Russian and British nationality, published an open letter to Mr Putin in the Evening Standard at the start of the Ukraine war, demanding a halt to the conflict.

He said earlier this year: “I have nothing to hide. I have no links to the Kremlin.”

His father served at the Soviet Embassy in London in the 1980s and has built a fortune in Russia in banking and airline companies.