'I don't want to influence politics'

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.

Mr Lebedev told ITV News: "I think it's at least impolite for somebody like me to start even thinking about any influence on British politics.

"I would like the newspaper to be unbiased, objective, sort of funny. I would like them to pick up interesting stories from that point of view.

"But my influence, I will try to limit that to zero."

Mr Lebedev said he adopts the same stance at the liberal Moscow-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta which he jointly owns with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

He described the Evening Standard as "a very good newspaper" which might have closed without his support.

The London weekday paper's publisher, Daily Mail & General Trust, said on January 21 that a controlling share would be passed into the hands of Evening Press, a company formed by Mr Lebedev and his son Evgeny, for a nominal sum - thought to be £1.

Mr Lebedev told ITV News: "As far as the Evening Standard is concerned, it's not at all £1, it's a little bit beyond a £30m commitment to help the newspaper go through the hard times, change itself to something more attractive to a Londoner or a non-Londoner. I do have certain ideas which are just visions yet for co-operations between Novaya Gazeta and Evening Standard."

He said his bigger vision was to be able to take a brilliant journalist and "sort of embrace them around a certain newsroom and focus them on the most important topics and stories for humanity".