Alexander Lebedev walks a fine line between criticizing Putin and supporting Russia.
"This point of view definitely has the right to exist,” declared Alexander Lebedev as he tweeted an article earlier this month from The Independent, which he acquired for £1 in 2010, about the attempted poisoning of Sergei Skripal. telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/…
Lebedev said "It is a shame that some of those who made their fortunes in their home country now choose to have nothing to do with the Russian state" in a veiled plea to Moscow to focus on investing in Russia instead of operations abroad. independent.co.uk/voices/russia-…
But in April 2016, Lebedev acts as Putin's apologist: "Too much Panama Papers space has been wasted attempting to make links between Russian funny money and Vladimir Putin." standard.co.uk/comment/commen…
...but in the same article: "The country is controlled by a small group of oligarchs, many of whom behave badly and, sad to say, some of them are close to Putin."
...again, in the same article, Lebedev blames the West: "Officials and businessmen in developing countries may be bleeding their countries dry but it is the West that is teaching them how"
Lebedev used to own the Moskovski Korrespondent, but according to Channel 4, Lebedev closed it down "for political reasons after it published a spurious article about Vladimir Putin having an affair with an Olympic gymnast half his age". en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander… 
Soon after purchasing British newspapers that both published negative content about Vladimir Putin, Lebedev announced he would close all the regional offices of the National Reserve Bank. Also in November 2012, Lebedev announced that he is selling off his assets in Russia.
Once considered a "Russian oligarch," "In early 2008, he was one of the golden 100 top Russian billionaires listed as the 39th richest Russian worth an estimated US$3.1 billion by Forbes magazine, but by October 2008 he was worth only $300 million."
