I’m proud to be British, says Lebedev in denial of KGB spy rumours
Moscow-born media mogul warns against Russophobia amid ‘incredible questions’ about his 2020 peerage
‘I have publicly made clear my condemnation of the war in Ukraine and called on President Putin to end the invasion’
“MY father was a KGB officer but I am no agent,” Lord Lebedev has said as he insists he is proud to be a British citizen.
The Russian-born media mogul said that being Russian does not “automatically make one an enemy of the state” and warned against a descent into “Russophobia”. In a lengthy statement published last night, he said he was responding to “accusations” from media outlets, which he said have been “posing incredible questions” of him.
Lord Lebedev said he understands why many people with Russian roots are under scrutiny, but insisted: “I am not a security risk to this country, which I love. My father a long time ago was a foreign intelligence agent of the KGB, but I am not some agent of Russia.”
The 41-year-old is on friendly terms with Boris Johnson, who elevated him to the House of Lords in 2020 naming him “Baron Lebedev, of Hampton in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and of Siberia in the Russian Federation”. Last week, the peer used the front page of London’s Evening Standard newspaper, which he owns as well as the Independent, to carry his 200-word open letter to Vladimir Putin to urge him to end the war.
Its headline read “President Putin, please stop this war”, with Lord Lebedev pleading with the Russian president to “stop Russians killing their Ukrainian brothers and sisters”.
Yesterday, he said he wished to provide some context to the “farcical” speculation about him. “I am a British citizen. I first moved here as a child and was educated in the United Kingdom at primary and secondary level. I am proud to be a British citizen and consider Britain my home,” he said. “I have publicly made clear my condemnation of the war in Ukraine and called on President Putin to end the invasion of the country in the most public way possible through a letter to him published on the front page of the Evening Standard.”
Labour has called for Lord Lebedev’s peerage to be investigated by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, after it was claimed that Britain’s security services dropped alleged concerns about his ennoblement after the intervention of the Prime Minister.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said Mr Johnson should hand over any advice given to him by Britain’s spy agencies over his plan to award Lord Lebedev a peerage in 2020.
It followed reports that the security services had initially raised concerns about the appointment, causing the House of Lords Appointments Commission to advise against it.
But both the peer and No10 deny the suggestion that his appointment was the subject of political interference. Downing Street insisted on Monday that the process was conducted “properly and correctly”.
Mr Johnson subsequently said that criticism of Lord Lebedev’s peerage “suits Putin’s agenda” and denied overriding security concerns from Britain’s spy agencies about the appointment.
He said that while the allegations would “obviously be extraordinary” if they were true, it was “not the case” that he had interfered in the process. Several other ministers also denied allegations that Lord Lebedev had an undue influence on the Government by pointing out the peer’s poor record of attendance in the House of Lords.
Lord Lebedev also defended the Evening Standard and Independent saying there can be “no question” of their editorial independence.
“As a child of the Soviet Union, I strongly believe in a free and diverse press and the value these titles provide,” he said. “I am also proud of the social campaigns, my achievements for animal conservation in Africa and elsewhere and the money I have helped raise for British charities over the past 15 years.”
Born in Moscow, Lord Lebedev is the son of Alexander Lebedev, a Russian businessman and former KGB officer. He moved to London aged eight, when his father began working at the KGB rezidentura in the Soviet Embassy. He has lived in the UK ever since and became a British citizen in 2010.
Lord Lebedev’s father was at one point one of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs. His first company, the Russian Investment Finance Company, bought the National Reserve Bank in the mid1990s, which went on to become one of Russia’s largest banks. Its assets included stakes in some of Russia’s largest state-owned companies such as the national airline Aeroflot and the energy giant Gazprom.