BRITAIN HAS BEEN INFILTRATED BY AN UGLY STRAIN OF RUSSIA PHOBIA

ALL my life I have been asked by fellow Russians whether I feel like an outsider in the UK, where I am a citizen and where have lived since I was eight years old.

The answer, until very recently, has been No. Yet I have been forced to rethink this, as an ugly strain of Russophobia has infiltrated Britain.

Newspapers that pride themselves on tolerance and inclusivity have written, almost explicitly, that Russians like me are a ‘fifth column’ in modern Britain. One obscure publication, without a shred of actual evidence, has called me a ‘possible spy’.

My loyalty to this country has been questioned. My social and business activities have been treated by sections of the media and the Government as tantamount to acts of treason.

Before the release of a parliamentary report on ‘Russian interference’ in the UK’s political process, many news outlets published hysterical speculation on me and my family.

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.

Others have attempted to link me to an international network behind the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit vote. This barely merits a response, as a simple glance at my newspaper titles will tell you.

When I bought the Evening Standard in 2009 and The Independent in 2010, both newspapers were less than a month from closure.

Now The Independent flourishes online, continues to hold political, business and cultural leaders to account across the world, and is a leading digital news source in the UK and US.

The Evening Standard provides a free news service to millions of Londoners. Circulation has increased more than fivefold and we have established it as the country’s pre-eminent campaigning newspaper. We have raised nearly £20 million for London causes.

I have always taken great pride in the strict editorial independence of both titles, as personally uncomfortable as it has been to me at times.

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’. It would be straightforwardly racist to conflate British Muslims with Islamic terrorist atrocities, just as Jewish Britons ought not to be blamed for Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

This is why I feel I must speak out against those who would vilify British Russians for the policies of the Kremlin.

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.

THE Evening Standard on Tuesday published calls for t he report t o be released. It should be released. I would be very surprised if I were even mentioned. But again, we cannot know.

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.

I have never met Vladimir Putin... I am proud to be a friend of Boris Johnson