Evening Standard's Evgeny Lebedev says 'I am not some agent of Russia' amid peerage scrutiny
Media mogul Lord Evgeny Lebedev has insisted he "not some agent of Russia" after security risk allegations surfaced over his peerage.
Lebedev acknowledged on Friday that his father, Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, was once a KGB officer, but denies he and his family are “a security risk to this country”.
The 41-year-old Russian-British magnate, who is behind the Evening Standard and Independent newspapers, as well as the London Live TV channel, was awarded a peerage in July 2020.
Earlier this week Boris Johnson denied intervening to override security concerns about awarding Lebedev the title, following a report in The Sunday Times that alleged British security services had assessed that the businessman could pose a national security risk.
Lord Lebedev posted a statement on the Evening Standard's website on Friday, condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and denying he is a threat to the UK.
Writing alongside a graphic image of a child who did not survive a Russian attack, he defended his newspapers' coverage of the war and appealed to the public to "not descend into Russophobia."
The statement also comes as the UK targets Kremlin-supporting oligarchs with sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.Lord Lebedev wrote: “At the moment many with Russian roots are under scrutiny, including myself.
“I understand the reason for this as it is inevitable when events of such magnitude occur and the world order as we have known it in recent decades suddenly gets torn up.
“But 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.
“I may have a Russian name but that makes me no less a committed or proud British citizen than anyone else in this country of ours.
“Being Russian does not automatically make one an enemy of the state, and it is crucial we do not descend into Russiaphobia, like any other phobia, bigotry or discrimination.”
The Sunday Times reported that the assessment of the Moscow-born businessman was withdrawn by the security services after the Prime Minister personally intervened.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee to investigate the “matter of national security”.
Asked about the allegations regarding Lord Lebedev on Monday, Mr Johnson told reporters: “That is simply incorrect… It suits Putin’s agenda to try to characterise this as a struggle between the West and Russia.
“It suits his agenda to say that the UK, that we in Nato countries, are anti-Russia, European countries are now anti-Russian.
“It’s very, very, very important that we get the message over that we’re not anti-Russian, we’re not against Russians.
“Our quarrel is simply with the regime and the aggression of Vladimir Putin.”
However, Mr Johnson sidestepped a question about whether he met Lord Lebedev in March 2020, at the height of the first wave of the pandemic, to discuss the peerage.