Alexander Lebedev is best known as the Russian businessman and public figure who bought the Evening Standard and The Independent newspapers in the UK. A former KGB intelligence officer in the USSR's London Embassy, his book covers the years from his birth in 1959 to 2016.

Written in a wry and humorous manner, the book is mainly a memoir of Lebedev's own hair-raising experiences as someone who aspires to show that an 'honest banker' is not an oxymoron. There is the thread of a whodunit as his attempts at constructive and charitable business enterprises are systematically torpedoed by a person or persons unknown. He describes the dirty tricks used against him and the attempt to assassinate him and details how the Russian and international political and business elite live.

Lebedev openly tells of his relations with leading politicians, businessmen and cultural figures in Russia and abroad, and investigates corruption scandals, dodgy multi-billion-dollar deals and contract killings. A comical episode on how he faced five years of imprisonment for a minor fracas during a television talk show, and how world show business stars (Elton John, Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, John Malkovich, Ian McKellen, Stephen Fry) rallied to his defence. He describes in detail how and why he became involved with two prominent UK newspapers.

Lebedev reveals his access to inside sources of information, with policemen and secret policemen slipping him memoirs and transcripts of episodes which would otherwise have remained unknown. It is ultimately a portrait of a political system which ensures that genuine attempts to improve the fortunes of his country and its citizens are built on sand.

About the Author
Author Alexander Lebedev is a Russian banker, philanthropist and public figure. A member of the KGB's Foreign Intelligence Service, he worked in the USSR Embassy in London in the 1980s. Since 1992 he has been a businessman, founder and beneficial owner of financial & industrial group National Reserve Corporation, which includes the National Reserve Bank. He has property assets throughout Europe and enterprises in aviation, agriculture, engineering, catering and beyond. He bought The Independent and the Evening Standard newspapers and is a shareholder and investor of investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta in Russia.

Reviews
[An] entertaining and wildly self-indulgent account of his life and career in Russia... a noble effort to save an industry in trouble. -- Luke Harding * The Guardian *
Alexander Lebedev's new book is a revelatory portrait of power players, from his days in the KGB to multi-million pound deals. [It] lays bare a world in which the grim violence and comic absurdism you might find in Gogol's short stories coexist... If Hunt the Banker settles a lot of scores, it's also a good-humoured account of his own foibles and business failings. -- Anne McElvoy and Jim Armitage * Evening Standard *



Book Information
ISBN 9781846893032
Author Alexander Lebedev
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Quiller Publishing Ltd
Publisher Quiller Publishing Ltd
Weight(grams) 655g