Lebedev outlines his plans for Standard

Alexander Lebedev has revealed his plans for the London Evening Standard, which he bought this week after six months of fraught negotiations. Speaking at a specially convened press conference in Moscow on Thursday, the Russian billionaire and business partner of the fomer Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said he would spend tens of millions of pounds to ensure the survival of the loss-making title, and that he had had to sell a private jet and his Italian stately home to finance the deal.

Although Lebedev paid only a nominal sum - reportedly £1 - to buy a 75.1 per cent stake in the paper from the newspaper's parent company, the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), he has also taken on the Standard's considerable debts. After discussing his investment plans, he said: "My responsibility now is to help the paper survive for years and not just for months. I don't want it be said that some Russian idiot and former spy came along and bought it like Chelsea, only for it to close down.

"It's a civic duty, to entertain people, to help the paper through the bad times and maybe one day it breaks even, but clearly I will not influence the editorial line of the newspaper."

This could become something of a hot potato. For while the deal is done and dusted, it has now emerged that Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, may have to decide whether Lebedev is a fit and proper person to own a British newspaper.

Lebedev appeared to confirm that the Standard's current editor, Veronica Wadley, would be stood down, saying he would reveal a new editor, widely tipped to be Tatler editor Geordie Grieg, next week. As reported here, Grieg is one of two shareholders in Evening Press Ltd, which now owns the Standard. The Russian oligarch's son, Evgeny Lebedev, is chairman.

Lebedev also said he had no immediate plans to buy any other British papers: it had been rumoured he was sniffing around the Independent - though he added that this might change after "six to 12 months" if the global economy picks up. ·