Canada has imposed sanctions on Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB officer, in the latest wave of penalties against rich Russians for their alleged ties to the Kremlin.
Melanie Joy, Canada’s foreign minister, announced the sanctions on Friday, saying her country would also ban the import of luxury goods from Russia including caviar and the export of jewelry, art and kitchenware to Russia.
Canada has ordered visa bans and asset freezes against 15 Russian nationals for their ties to the Kremlin including Mr Lebedev, 62, who bought the Independent and the Evening Standard newspapers in 2010 before transferring the ownership to his son.
Evgeny Lebedev, 42, known for his close ties to Boris Johnson, received a seat in the House of Lord in 2020 and has spoken out against the war in Ukraine.
Lebedev Jr, who holds British and Russian citizenship, grew up in the UK and serves as a non-executive director at two companies that own the Independent and the Evening Standard.
His father Alexander has transferred the ownership of the two newspapers to his son and mostly resigned directorships at local companies.
He is, however, still listed as a director of Independent Print Ltd which provides outsourced digital publishing services to the Independent and Standard.
Mr Lebedev has served at the Soviet Embassy in London in the 1980s and has built a fortune in Russia in banking and airline companies.
He was not among the group of Russia’s richest men invited to the Kremlin to meet President Vladimir Putin in the first week of the invasion and he has not been seen in public or made any statements since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.
Mr Lebedev is also known as a co-owner of Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s sole independent newspaper, that had to shut down last month due to a war censorship law.
Dmitry Muratov, the paper’s editor-in-chief and last year’s Nobel Prize winner, in March defended the Lebedev family in the face of potential Western sanctions, hailing the Russian businessman for bankrolling the paper while no other Russian businessman was willing to.
Questions about Mr Lebedev Jr’s peerages were raised shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Lord Lebedev said at the time: “I have nothing to hide. I have no links to the Kremlin. Never even been inside apart from the museum.”
The British government earlier this month declined a Commons instructions to release information about making Mr Lebedev Jr a peer, citing concerns about the confidentiality of those nominated.
Mr Lebedev Jr published an open letter to Mr Putin in the Evening Standard at the start of the war, urging him to stop the war in Ukraine.
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