MOSCOW, Jan 22: Russian billionaire and ex-KGB spy Alexander Lebedev on Thursday pledged to spend tens of millions of pounds to ensure the survival of his newly-acquired London Evening Standard newspaper.

“Tens of millions of pounds will be invested over at least two years. I want this newspaper to survive and to be profitable,” Lebedev told a news conference in Moscow a day after his shock acquisition was announced.

Lebedev agreed to pay a nominal sum reportedly one pound to buy a 75.1 per cent stake in the paper from the newspaper’s parent company, Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT).

“It’s a civic duty, to entertain people, to help the paper through the bad times and maybe one day it breaks even,” said Lebedev.

“But clearly I will not influence the editorial line of the newspaper,” he added.

Like other newspapers, the loss-making Evening Standard is struggling against the plethora of free news available on the internet and in give-away papers which rely on advertising for revenue.

The only paid-for city-wide newspaper in the capital, its circulation was 287,000 in December last year.

Fielding a barrage of questions about his work as a KGB spy at the Soviet embassy in London in the 1980s, Lebedev said the British media’s fascination with his past showed the country’s legendary sense of humour.

“Well, I have been monitoring all the press coverage in Britain and I have noticed some jokes with a very good sense of humour like ‘I’m from the KGB, give me your newspaper!’ With all these jokes you see the typical sense of humour of the British, which is so good,” he added.

The oligarch has over the last decade restyled himself as a liberal philanthropist, giving millions to charity and building a friendship with ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

He co-owns with Gorbachev a 49 per cent holding in the Novaya Gazeta newspaper which has been highly critical of the Kremlin, especially over atrocities committed by the Russian army in the war in Chechnya.

“Put yourself in the shoes of Novaya Gazeta journalists. —AFP