Media tycoon: I DON’T have Kompromat on my friend Boris Johnson
That’s Russian for compromising material which the PM’s enemies claim was gathered at a star-studded party at Evgeny Lebedev’s Italian villa
A RUSSIAN media baron at the centre of a row over a ‘suppressed’ secret intelligence report today breaks his silence to dismiss claims he gathered damaging information on Boris Johnson during a celebrity-packed party.
Evgeny Lebedev, owner of London’s Evening Standard newspaper, blames an ‘ugly strain of Russophobia’ for allegations that he obtained ‘Kompromat’ – compromising material used for blackmail – during a visit by Mr Johnson to the Russian’s luxurious villa in Umbria, Italy.
The party, where guests included actress Joan Collins, pop star Pixie Lott and glamour model Katie Price, is understood to have been mentioned to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) when it was gathering evidence for a report on the extent of Russian penetration into the British Establishment.
Mr Johnson has been criticised for blocking the report’s publication until after the Election on the grounds that the Government needs more time to censor sensitive information. Committee chairman Dominic Grieve says he fears the findings will never see the light of day.
The shelving of the publication has led to increasingly sensationalist claims on the internet, including about Mr Lebedev’s party.
The issue was seized upon by Labour, with Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry making political capital out of the ‘utterly unjustifiable’ delay and questioning the relationships fostered by Mr Johnson’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, during the three years he spent in Russia in the 1990s. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab objected to the insinuation that No 10 was ‘in the grip of a Kremlin mole’.
Mr Lebedev, 39, moved to London aged eight to be with his father, Alexander, who had diplomatic cover for his KGB work, and has remained in the UK ever since. In 2009, the pair joined forces to buy a 65 per cent share in the Evening Standard. A year later, Evgeny Lebedev also bought The Independent and launched the i newspaper. The media baron, who campaigns on conservation issues, once owned a pet wolf, which he called Boris.
Mr Lebedev writes in today’s Mail on Sunday that he was amazed to read that he was ‘ a possible spy’, and by the presumption that Russians living in UK constitute a ‘fifth column’.
He says: ‘ Various papers produced Stalinist lists of “enemies of the people”; influential Russians in the UK who, it is implied, advance the Kremlin’s agenda. I have never met Vladimir Putin. I have never given a penny to a political party. I made the list because of a party I held with friends at my house in Italy… I am proud to be a friend of Boris Johnson, who like most of my friends has visited me in Umbria. And I hate to disappoint, but nothing happens there that produces “Kompromat”.’ Referring to the ISC report, Mr Lebedev writes: ‘The Government has not released this Russian interference report, meaning I am in the Kafkaesque situation of being accused in public and possibly libelled in newspapers based on illegal leaks, without the right to know what I am accused of, or the right of reply.’
He adds: ‘ Trial behind closed doors is the justice of a banana republic. This isn’t the country Britain is supposed to be. Where people are judged on their origins rather than their contributions to society or on their accent rather than what they say. Don’t judge me because I’m Russian, judge me on what I’ve done for this country, and what I intend to continue to do.’
The party in Umbria is understood to have been referred to in the ISC report – without giving the ‘kompromat’ claims any credence – but only in the redacted annex, which will remain confidential.
According to an account by openDemocracy, a campaigning Leftwing website, Mr Johnson travelled to Mr Lebedev’s villa in the hills near Perugia in October 2016, shortly after he became Foreign Secretary. He was with his now estranged wife Marina Wheeler but without his usual entourage of close-protection officers. It was one of several visits Mr Johnson has made to the villa, dating back to his time as London Mayor.
Open Democracy claimed Ms Price took ‘advantage of the freeflowing champagne on [Mr Lebedev’s] private jet from London and the pure Russian vodka on offer’ at the party before making a toast at dinner. The website alleged that she called Mr Lebedev ‘You
‘Trial behind closed doors is the justice of a banana republic’
‘Model Katie Price had to be escorted from the table’
Guv’ then announced that ‘champagne and Pricey don’t mix’ and ‘lifted her top to expose her breasts, turning to face the Foreign Secretary [Mr Johnson] as she did so’.
It added that Ms Collins reportedly expressed her shock at the spectacle and that ‘one of Mr Lebedev’s fourstrong t eam of armed personal bodyguards, headed by an ex- SAS soldier, escorted Ms Price from the dinner table. She was not seen again over the weekend’.
Newspaper reports also claimed that nine Conservative Party donors from Russia were named in the report, including Alexander Temerko, who has worked for the Kremlin defence ministry and who has gifted more than £1.2 million to the Tories over seven years.
During the ISC’s research for its report – simply titled Russia – it was told that Moscow had built up a network of friendly British diplomats, lawyers and parliamentarians over the decades in a way that posed a significant threat to the UK’s institutions and way of life.
A senior Whitehall source, who has read the suppressed report, told this newspaper that it concluded that Russia had helped to boost the Leave vote in the 2016 referendum through vigorous social media activity and the output of the Kremlinfunded Russia Today t el evision station. Remain supporters have long claimed that Moscow wanted the UK to back Brexit in order to destabilise the EU.
The source said: ‘ The committee concluded that Russia’s actions were likely to have had some bearing on the result, but stopped short of saying that it made a critical difference.’