Alexander Lebedev has cut ties with the Independent after the former KGB agent was sanctioned in Canada.
The billionaire was hit with an assets freeze and visa ban last Friday over his ties to the Kremlin, while Vladimir Putin continues to wage war on Ukraine.
Mr Lebedev, who bought the Independent and Evening Standard newspapers in 2010 before passing ownership to Lord Evgeny Lebedev, his son, resigned as a director of Independent Print Limited on Sunday, according to company filings .
The Telegraph drew attention to Alexander Lebedev’s links to Independent Print Ltd on Saturday.
The company previously provided digital publishing services to the Independent and Evening Standard, according to statements filed in September 2020 with Companies House.
His resignation will intensify pressure on Boris Johnson to release more information about why he handed a peerage to Lord Lebedev, a friend of the Prime Minister who has been the subject of allegations that the services of security had raised concerns about him with Downing Street.
Lord Lebedev, who has dual Russian and British nationality, denied posing a risk to the nation’s security and said his philanthropic work was the reason for his appointment to the House of Lords.
The peer published an open letter to Putin in the Evening Standard at the start of the war in Ukraine, calling on him to end the conflict.
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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-25 11:20:25