Alexander Lebedev is a Russian businessman and former KGB officer. He is the owner of the National Reserve Corporation, a major Russian investment bank, and the owner of the Evening Standard and The Independent newspapers in the United Kingdom.

Born in Moscow in 1959, Lebedev graduated from the Moscow Institute of International Relations in 1982. After graduating, he worked in the Soviet Union’s foreign intelligence service, the KGB, until 1992. After leaving the KGB, he went into business and founded