Russia’s top investigative agency has filed criminal charges against tycoon and British newspaper backer Alexander Lebedev.

A tycoon whose holdings include a newspaper critical of the Kremlin says he wants to sell his Russian assets because of pressure from the security services.

A Russian tycoon punched a fellow billionaire on a television panel show after a discussion on the financial crisis degenerated into petty name-calling.

A RUSSIAN tycoon punched a fellow billionaire on a television panel show after a discussion on the financial crisis degenerated into petty name-calling.

Press freedom in Britain could be threatened as a result of the phone hacking scandal, newspaper boss Evgeny Lebedev has warned.

Jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced to six more years in prison yesterday following a trial seen as payback for his defiance of Vladimir Putin.

MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY was convicted of theft and money laundering charges yesterday, a verdict that will likely keep the jailed oil tycoon who was once Russia’s richest man behind bars for several more years.

A judge declared former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of theft and money laundering charges in his second trial today, Russian news agencies reported.

Billionaire Alexander Lebedev, owner of Britain’s Independent newspaper, was held inside the Moscow headquarters of a bank he owns while masked police rifled through company files, his spokesman said today.

Independent News & Media PLC have agreed to sell the Independent and Independent On Sunday for a nominal £1 to Former KGB agent and Evening Standard owner Alexander Lebedev, it was announced today.

INDEPENDENT News & Media (INM) is expected to conclude the sale of its two loss-making English newspaper titles, the Independent and Independent on Sunday, to Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev today.

BRITAIN’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has effectively approved Independent News & Media’s (INM) proposed sale of its two London-based newspapers to Russian tycoon, Alexander Lebedev – although no update on the sale process has actually been given by the company itself.

London: There is no deal yet between Irish Independent owners Independent News & Media, in talks over its two loss-making British national papers, and Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, an industry source told Reuters yesterday.

INDEPENDENT News & Media (INM) is expected to complete the sale of its loss-making London-based newspaper titles – the Independent and Independent on Sunday – to Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev this week.

London: Independent News & Media (INM) seems to be moving closer to concluding the sale of its two London-based newspaper titles – the Independent and the Independent on Sunday – to Russian tycoon, Alexander Lebedev.

INDEPENDENT News & Media (INM) has responded to press speculation by confirming that it has extended the outcome deadline of exclusive talks with Russian tycoon, Alexander Lebedev, over the potential sale of its two London-based newspapers to the end of next week.

INDEPENDENT News & Media (INM) is strongly considering selling its two London-based lossmaking newspaper titles – the Independent and Independent on Sunday – to Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev.

Former KGB agent and Evening Standard owner Alexander Lebedev is in exclusive talks to buy British newspapers The Independent and Independent on Sunday, it was confirmed today.

The Russian oligarch owner of the Evening Standard newspaper is in advanced talks to buy Independent News & Media (INM) newspapers The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, it was reported today.

RUSSIAN billionaire and one-time KGB spy, Alexander Lebedev, is understood to be locked in advanced talks to buy London-based The Independent and the Independent on Sunday.

FRESH speculation has arisen over the future ownership of Independent News & Media’s (INM) two main London-based newspaper titles — the Independent and the Independent on Sunday — after meetings were held with Russian billionaire investor Alexander Lebedev.

A Russian tycoon said today he and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev will pair up to create a new political party.

Russian prosecutors said today that jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner organised the theft of oil worth £16bn (€24bn), in the first details of new embezzlement and money laundering charges filed this week against Russia’s once-richest man.

A local government official today denied that there were high levels of radiation around the Russian Far East prison camp where oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been sent to serve an eight-year sentence.

Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been sent to the prison where he will serve out his eight-year sentence on charges including tax evasion and fraud, the Interfax news agency reported today.

Jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has begun a hunger strike to support his colleague Platon Lebedev, who was moved into an isolation cell last week, according to a statement.

A MOSCOW court declared oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of an array of charges yesterday in a trial widely criticised as politically motivated, sentencing him to nine years in prison minus time served.

A court declared oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of an array of charges today in a trial widely criticised as politically motivated, sentencing him to nine years in prison minus time served.

Judges in Moscow are in their ninth day of reading the verdict in oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s trial, going over details of tax evasion charges, as the politically-charged case approached its end.

The Moscow court reading the verdict in the trial of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky today said it considers him guilty of fraud, but under a section of the criminal code that offers a slightly lesser sentence than the original charge.

Yukos tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky returns to court for a fourth day for the gruelling reading of the verdict in his fraud case today, with his frustrated lawyers speculating that the numbing pace is aimed at killing interest in the biggest trial in post-Soviet Russia.

THE Moscow court reading the verdict in the politically charged trial of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky adjourned yesterday without pronouncing a final decision, postponing the process into a third day.

Alex Nicholson, Moscow

The Prosecutor-General’s office said today that it was planning to file new charges against oil tycoon and ex-Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky, already awaiting a verdict on charges of tax evasion and fraud in a politically charged trial.

An investor group based in Britain was today reported to have proposed to the Russian government to pay the crushing tax debt of the Yukos oil company in exchange for the Yukos shares held by its jailed chief executive and his partners.

Russia’s richest man, ex-Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has pleaded not guilty to a raft of charges that could jail him for 10 years, while authorities tightened the grip on the beleaguered oil company’s key production assets.

Russia’s richest man Mikhail Khodorkovsky pleaded not guilty to all charges against him today, nearly eight months after his arrest at gunpoint at a Siberian airport.

Russia’s richest man, billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and another major shareholder in his Yukos oil conglomerate, went on trial in Moscow today in a case that will delve into the murky privatisation process that accompanied the dismantling of the Soviet Union

The owners of the holding company that controls Russia’s largest oil company Yukos, have offered their stock to the government in exchange for the release of former Yukos chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The Russian prosecutor-general’s office today brought tax evasion charges against Platon Lebedev, one of the country’s richest men.

About 200 valuable works of art hidden in a Brooklyn apartment have been returned to the Republic of Azerbaijan.