Don’t call me an oligarch: Alexander Lebedev in his own words

Alexander Lebedev doesn’t like being called an oligarch. It has connotations, and a complex Greek meaning he says.

The owner of the Independent and Evening Standard newspapers has led a busy life – KGB agent, banker, businessman, politician, newspaper owner being just some of the things achieved so far.

He leaves the media empire in London largely to his young son, but had come to the Channel 4 News studio to discuss Russia, democracy and the morality of wealth. He even had some words on the advisability of tax evasion by the rich.

Of course his most famous TV appearance resulted in him punching another guest he was debating with – today he told me he does not regret that when I put it to him it was a little thuggish.

I also wondered whether his political ambitions were compatible with his enormous wealth.

On Putin’s Russia he is very critical of the system and of the country but tends to go easy on the President himself. I wondered if this was because he was scared of Putin – but he denied it.

See what you think of his answers in his interview in full:

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