Russia on Wednesday charged billionaire Kremlin critic and media magnate Alexander Lebedev with hooliganism after he punched a guest on a television show last year. Lebedev, who owns Britain's The Independent and Evening Standard dailies and part-owns Russia's most critical opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, may now face up to five years in prison.
The 52-year-old former KGB agent, who said last month he wanted to wind down his Moscow holdings because of pressure from Russia's security services, promptly branded the charges political. "Alexander Lebedev has been charged with hooliganism and assault," the Investigative Committee said in a statement, referring to Lebedev as a lawmaker in a district council.
"According to investigators, Alexander Lebedev caused bodily harm to Sergei Polonsky when he was taking part in the show NTVshniki, which was aired September 16, 2011," it added. The full charge of hooliganism and assault motivated by political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred, or hatred of a particular social group, earned three members of punk rock group Pussy Riot two years in prison last month.
Lebedev co-owns Novaya Gazeta together with former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and has written numerous articles ridiculing President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin. If convicted of hooliganism, he could be jailed for up to five years, while assault carries a shorter term of two years. Lebedev was summoned by investigators at 2 pm (1000 GMT) and asked to sign an undertaking not to leave the country during the investigation, his spokesman Artyom Artyomov told AFP. "He refused to sign the undertaking," Artyomov said, adding that Lebedev planned to stay in Russia and fight the charges. "We are starting on the premise that we live under the rule of law," he said.
During an argument on the talk show, Lebedev jabbed Polonsky in the face and knocked him off his chair. Polonsky later published online pictures of a cut to his arm and his torn trousers. Writing in his blog at the time, Lebedev justified the assault by saying Polonsky had behaved in an aggressive, threatening manner throughout the debate. "In a critical situation, there is no choice. I see no reason to be hit with the first shot. I neutralised him," he wrote.