Overview

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. The author reveals details of how the Russian and international political and business elite live, talks about his relations with leading politicians, businessmen, journalists, cultural figures and celebrities in Russia and all over the world, and investigates corruption scandals, dodgy multi-billion-dollar deals and contract killings. The memoir is written in a wry and humorous manner, focusing on the financial mayhem in Russia in the 'Wild Nineties', and the international scams and global corruption which continue to this day. Lebedev sees the present as the age of a Third Colonialism, with the developed world conniving to milk the wealth of the developing world to the tune of $1 trillion a year. However, Hunt the Banker; The Confessions of a Russian ex-Oligarch 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 whodunnit as his attempts at constructive and charitable business enterprises are systematically torpedoed by a person or persons unknown. He names along the way, and describes the dirty tricks and the attempt to assassinate him. 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, including National Reserve Bank, he has property assets throughout Europe and enterprises in aviation, agriculture, engineering, catering and beyond. An Ex-MP, he is also a media mogul and proprietor of the UK newspapers The Independent and The London Evening Standard, London Live TV channel, and is shareholder and investor of investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta in Russia. He also has a Ph.D of Economics.

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9781846893032

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[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 *

I know Alexander Lebedev well, and his career has not been uneventful. It is absolutely clear that he is motivated by something immeasurably greater than an ambition to accumulate billions of dollars. 'What really matters, ' he says, 'is to get people thinking whether they are living their lives as they should. Can we really not do better? I am certain we can.' He seeks to persuade others of this belief with compelling speeches and, more importantly, through his own practical actions in a spirit of civic responsibility. --Mikhail Gorbachev

[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 I know Alexander Lebedev well, and his career has not been uneventful. It is absolutely clear that he is motivated by something immeasurably greater than an ambition to accumulate billions of dollars. 'What really matters, ' he says, 'is to get people thinking whether they are living their lives as they should. Can we really not do better? I am certain we can.' He seeks to persuade others of this belief with compelling speeches and, more importantly, through his own practical actions in a spirit of civic responsibility. --Mikhail Gorbachev

Author Information

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.

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