British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to answer “serious questions” over the appointment of Russian media tycoon Evgeni Lebedev as Lord after news emerged in the media on Sunday.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has reignited questions around the appointment as Lord for life of Evgeni Lebedev, son of Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, to the upper house of the British Parliament in 2020.
On Sunday, Britain’s The Sunday Times newspaper reported that outside intelligence services had raised concerns about such an appointment two years ago but that Boris Johnson had ignored those queries.
“In view of today’s revelations, I think the Prime Minister has serious questions to answer: what did he know? and did he go over security advice?” British opposition leader Keir Starmer told Sky News on Sunday.
The prime minister and Evgeni Lebedev have been friends since Boris Johnson became mayor of London in 2008. Questions over their relationship relate in particular to the April 2018 attendance of Boris Johnson, then foreign minister, at a villa party of Lebedev in Italy without security device.
Evgeni Lebedev defends his support for Ukraine
Speaking on Sky News on Sunday, Minister Michael Gove defended Evgeni Lebedev. “At no time did anyone tell me that it would be inappropriate to meet him or talk to him,” he said.
For his part, Evgeni Lebedev “has been clear in the pages of The Evening Standard, the newspaper of which he is the owner, that he disapproves of this conflict with all his heart” in Ukraine, affirmed the minister.
In a column Friday in his free daily, Evgeny Lebedev said he was “proud” to be a British citizen, believing that it was “crucial not to fall into Russophobia”. “I am not a security risk to this country, which I love,” he wrote, continuing that while his father was in the distant past a KGB intelligence agent, he is “not not some kind of agent of Russia”.
This is evidenced by the coverage of the Russian invasion by his newspaper, which last week called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops.