Police raid Lebedev's bank

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.

The spokesman said up to 30 armed Moscow policemen surrounded Mr Lebedev’s National Reserve Bank before entering..

He said he knew of no reason for the raid. A police spokesman refused to comment.

Mr Lebedev recently acquired Britain’s Independent newspaper, owns the London Evening Standard, has a stake in Russia’s Novaya Gazeta newspaper and is part-owner of national carrier Aeroflot.

Raiding company property and seizing computers and documents is common practice among Russia’s law-enforcement agencies.

Later security guards said the search was over, and that police had left.