Alexander Lebedev, the Russian owner of Britain's Independent and Evening Standard newspapers, has claimed an armed police raid on the bank he owns was organised by a rival in order to devalue his business.
Up to 30 detectives and special forces stormed the headquarters of Lebedev's National Reserve Bank (NRB) in Moscow yesterday, questioning the businessman and confiscating documents.
Police later said the search was connected to a criminal investigation into employees from another bank. But Lebedev, a billionaire who also co-owns the airline Aeroflot and the Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, said in an interview that he believed it was organised in order to damage his interests. "I think it was some kind of rich, corrupted 'roof' that decided to carry it out," he said. The word 'roof' is used in Russian to mean the political or security muscle that protects an illegal business.
Speaking on Kommersant FM radio, Lebedev added: "Someone paid for [the raid on NRB] in the hope that clients would desert the bank." The businessman did not say who he believed to be the culprit and he was unavailable for comment today.
There were extraordinary scenes yesterday when masked policemen carrying automatic weapons burst into Lebedev's offices near the Akademicheskaya metro station. Special forces officers leapt turnstiles at the entrance to the bank and stood guard to prevent reporters reaching the scene as detectives went to the upper floors.
It was later disclosed that they were seeking evidence for a criminal investigation into Rossiyskiy Kapital, a bank which Lebedev's business bailed out during the financial crisis at the request of the government. Employees of Rossiysky Kapital are said to have transferred 450m roubles (£9m) to a shell company before NRB took charge.
In a Twitter post and a report on his blog, Lebedev criticised the nature of the raid, calling it a "masky show" and hinting that it might also have political roots. He called the policemen involved "loafers" who had ignored his earlier warnings that money had been embezzled from Rossiyskiy Kapital.
In a rare reproach to Russia's president Dmitry Medvedev, the tycoon added: "However much Medvedev is told 'don't frighten business', so far it's not working."
Lebedev's aide, Artyom Artyomov, said today that NRB would send a letter to police demanding an explanation for the raid. "The searches were in no way related to the activities of NRB," he said. "So we don't understand why men with automatic weapons came to our offices. It damages the reputation of the bank."
