Mikhail Gorbachev is still a man who strides the global stage – and maintains a keen interest in domestic politics. He talks to Ginny Dougary about power, presidents, Putin and life after Raisa...

One of the first things Geordie Greig did as the editor of the Evening Standard was knock down an internal wall to make a bigger, lighter room for morning conference. His top team call it glasnost, a nod to the Standard's new Russian billionaire owner, Alexander Lebedev. It also meant that the paper's news editor had to vacate his office and move down the corridor...

In an interview with British newspaper The Guardian last week, billionaire Alexander Lebedev announced his intention to set up two new Russian radio stations - one of which would broadcast in English. They would offer talk-based, public service-style programmes and be self-consciously uninterested in chasing a profit. But is there a place for another Russian or a new English-language station in today's Moscow...

The London Evening Standard's new owner insists that he is not interested in making money. So how, exactly, did the former KGB agent become a billionaire newspaper proprietor? Steve Busfield reports. The new owner of the London Evening Standard is a very unusual sort of billionaire, for he seems to care little for money. It might just be that I don't know enough billionaires and that having that sort of money makes you very casual about it. But, still, Alexander Lebedev seems remarkably easy come, easy go about his fortune...

The business secretary, Lord Mandelson, was in particularly urbane mood when questioned in the House of Lords yesterday about Alexander Lebedev's London Evening Standard takeover. "It is perhaps not ideal, but what is ideal these days in the newspaper world?" was his knowing response. Mandelson also revealed that the government was not consulted about the Evening Standard deal and told the Lords that the sale seemed the only option for keeping the paper alive. "We could only wonder what Vere Rothermere would have made of it, but that is, I'm afraid, a matter now only for speculation," he said...

The business secretary, Lord Mandelson, described the takeover of the London Evening Standard by the former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev as "perhaps not ideal". But he said: "Mr Lebedev seems to have been the only option in keeping the paper alive and I think we would all agree ... that maintaining the London Evening Standard in existence is in the interests of us all — the public interest and journalism in this country...

The new London Evening Standard editor, Geordie Greig, has marked his first day in charge by penning a piece to readers outlining how the paper's aspiration under new its owner Alexander Lebedev was to take a "fundamentally optimistic view of life" and become the "voice of London". Lebedev, the Russian billionaire and former KGB agent, officially took control of the paper on Friday, 27 February, after buying 75.1% of the loss-making title, for a reported £1, from former owner Daily Mail & General Trust...

Britain has a new press proprietor, but the odd thing is that, until a few days ago, few people knew much about the fellow, save that he was a "Russian oligarch" and "former KGB spy." His name is Alexander Lebedev, and he has just bought the Evening Standard...

Like the middle classes, that they mostly cater to, British newspapers are pretty good at keeping up appearances. So, we have ultra-glossy weekend supplements that run into hundreds of pages, an ever-expanding line-up of fat-cat columnists (never mind if what they write seldom rises above the level of Westminster Village chatter), and expensive design “revamps” every few months, the latest being a “new-look” Saturday Times. It follows a revamped Independent and The Independent on Sunday which, in turn, followed a revamped Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. (Or was it the other way round?)...

Alexander Lebedev makes a very reluctant oligarch. The new proprietor of the London Evening Standard says he has never owned a yacht or a football club, he doesn’t want a private jet or a marble palace. Vladimir Putin? He says he often criticises him and is always risking his position by speaking out about journalists killed in Russia...

“ANY report is good unless it is an obituary,” Mark Twain is said to have remarked of the popular press. Aleksandr Lebedev, a friendly Russian oligarch, was happy to quote the aphorism as he explained to an RT interviewer his thoughts on acquiring a 75% stake in the London Evening Standard. His New Media Holdings already owns 49%, with Mikhail Gorbachev, in a Russian publication, Novy Gazeta. An articulate and charming entrepreneur, Lebedev was anxious to advertise his credentials as a hands-off publisher –– a rare animal...

The Russian oligarch and former KGB agent who is London newspaper Evening Standard's new owner has denied he had bought the newspaper to influence British politics. Alexander Lebedev said he hoped his influence would be "zero" and the paper would be unbiased and objective...

The London Evening Standard's new billionaire owner has said he would like to invest in other newspapers - but the recession has left him a bit short of cash. In a TV interview, Alexander Lebedev outlined his plans for the loss-making evening title, including a £30m injection to see it "through the hard times" and a possible tie-up with the Novaya Gazeta, the Russian paper in which he owns a stake...

The Evening Standard is poised to up the ante in the newspaper war on London¹s streets by offering free and heavily discounted copies of its 50p daily paper outside train and Tube stations. The new business plan is the first significant move by the paper¹s new Russian oligarch owner Alexander Lebedev and his management team as they look to claw readers back from News International-owned thelondonpaper and Associated Newspapers¹ London Lite...

Evgeny Lebedev, the 28-year-old son of the K.G.B. agent turned oligarch Aleksandr Y. Lebedev and the new senior executive director of a London daily, The Evening Standard, took other senior editors from the paper out for lunch recently...