A new category - The Best Business-Speaker - was instituted this year. The prize will be awarded to owners of financial companies which have become the most prominent persons in the information field of the Russian mass media. Alexander Lebedev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Reserve Bank, became the first winner in this category...

Medvedev says ownership of single-family homes is the best way to expand Russia’s middle class, creating an engine for economic and demographic expansion. Billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev’s Mospromstroi and Alexander Lebedev’s National Housing Corp. are lining up to profit from the boom if the president succeeds in creating a market...

The agenda of the EU-Russia meeting in Rostov-on-Don is devoted to economic cooperation between Russia and the European Union. The top priority is mutual investment aimed at creating jobs and boosting the production of goods and services, modernisation and innovation. In this respect I would like to share our experience within a large investment project in the EU in 2006-2010...

The Times has corrected a story it published last Thursday which suggested that Independent proprietor Alexander Lebedev had been questioned by Moscow police over allegations he threatened a business associate. Press Gazette understands that Lebedev, who also owns the Evening Standard, was fuming about the story and that today’s “clarification” was agreed without legal action or going to the PCC. The story follows a recent history of friction between Times publishers News International and Lebedev’s fledgling publishing empire...

Simon Kelner has insisted that he is not an “interim” editor of The Independent, despite a suggestion to the contrary by his boss Evgeny Lebedev to the Financial Times last month. Kelner told Press Gazette: “I’m going to be here until they get sick of me, which may be quite soon – but I hope not.” Kelner was appointed editor of The Independent in April after serving two years as managing editor and ten years as editor before that...

The London Evening Standard attracted an average of 1.35 million readers a day between October 2009 and March 2010, beating paid-for titles The Guardian and The Independent, according to new readership figures for national daily newspapers. The National Readership Survey (NRS) figures differ to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures as it canvasses 36,000 people to find out how many readers are estimated to have read a particular newspaper. ABC reports the number of copies of papers sold...

If you think all rich Russian art collectors are in it just for the money and the status, think again. Thirty-year-old Evgeny Lebedev is the chairman of Independent Print Ltd, which owns the London Evening Standard and the Independent newspapers, bought since the beginning of last year by his billionaire father, Alexander Lebedev. As one of the most eligible bachelors in the UK, he has been dating the actress Joely Richardson, though film and theatre come second to paintings and sculpture, which are his real passion. But he’s not happy with the status quo. He thinks the contemporary art market is overburdened with brand products, that Damien Hirst is a better businessman than an artist, and that it is time for a more individual and spiritual art to emerge...

It was the election's biggest media bust-up. After the Independent launched an advertising campaign with the slogan "Rupert Murdoch won't decide this election - you will", Murdoch's son James and Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International, stormed into the paper's Kensington offices to berate the Indy's editor-in-chief, Simon Kelner. "What are you fucking playing at?" Murdoch Jnr allegedly demanded...

Mr Luzhkov's critics say the mayor is the most visible example of the corruption Mr Medvedev is trying to fight, pointing to the city construction contracts awarded to the mayor's wife. "There have been a couple of things recently that have been so big that I don't think [the president] can just close his eyes to it and pretend to fight corruption . . . He has to put his money where his mouth is," said Alexander Lebedev, the Russian tycoon and former political opponent of Mr Luzhkov...

Bullying right-wing media bosses invaded the Independent’s offices after the newspaper attacked David Cameron’s backroom deal with US-based mogul Rupert Murdoch. The Aussie-born billionaire’s son James and flame-haired sidekick Rebekah Brooks strode into the newsroom brandishing the paper with the headline Rupert Murdoch Won’t Decide The Election – You Will...

After a lifetime at the helm of the world's most powerful media organisation and in the crosshairs of the left, Rupert Murdoch has, of necessity, developed a reasonably thick skin. The Dirty Digger is how he is disrespectfully referred to by Private Eye. Spitting Image always portrayed him as a shouty figure, irredeemably uncouth. But his son James seems less ready to turn the other cheek, as it were. And this would seem to be the most plausible explanation for why Murdoch the younger, the chairman and chief executive News Corporation Europe and Asia, caused a media sensation on Wednesday by striding across the editorial floor at the Independent newspaper to berate its editor-in-chief, Simon Kelner...

Staff at The Independent newspaper have been stunned by an unexpected and angry visit to their offices by the rival newspaper proprietor James Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp Europe and Asia. On Wednesday afternoon, Mr Murdoch walked into The Independent’s newsroom in Kensington, central London, carrying a copy of the newspaper. He was accompanied by Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, which publishes The Times and The Sun among others...

The Independent relaunched today with a "serious" new look and masthead slogan declaring that it is "free from party-political ties" and "free from proprietorial influence". The redesign comes just over three weeks after Alexander Lebedev acquired the paper in a deal which will see Independent News and Media pay him £9.25m over the next 10 months. The new slogan apparently seeks to deflect concerns that former KBG officer Lebedev will seek to influence editorial coverage in the paper. The redesign has been some months in the pipeline and has been carried out by Barcelona-based design company Cases and Associates...

Alexander Lebedev might not officially take over at the Independent for another month yet, but that hasn't stopped him from going about getting things the way he wants them at the title: the Guardian reported that the paper will unveil a new look from tomorrow, which is expected to include a new section comment and features section called Viewspaper...

BMB will take on all advertising for the The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, which were sold last week to Alexander Lebedev. The agency will produce a major campaign to coincide with the revamp, which is being worked on by the paper's design consultancy in Barcelona. The relaunched paper, supported by advertising across TV, cinema, online and print, is expected to be introduced in the run-up to the General Election...