More than 180 years as a paid-for newspaper will end as the London Evening Standard positions itself as a free newspaper, its new Russian owner said. Alexander Lebedev, who purchased 75.1 percent of the Evening Standard in January, said, the London Evening Standard is the first leading quality newspaper to go free and I am sure others will follow. The move will subtract about $10 million in annual revenues from the newspaper, but also subtract millions in circulation and distribution costs, the Guardian reported Friday. The newspaper plans to increase circulation from 250,000 to 600,000, which puts the newspaper's advertising structure in a new category. The newspaper plans to go free starting Oct.

The Daily Mail & General Trust said the sale of the Evening Standard, one of Britain's leading newspapers to a former KGB officer, would save the publication. Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev, once a lieutenant colonel with the Soviet KGB, is set to purchase controlling interest the Evening Standard,

Excerpt from report by Russian Ekho Moskvy radio on 23 September [Presenter] The A Just Russia party congress brought a lot of surprise today. Whereas almost nobody had any doubts over who was to be included on the federal list, the confirmation of the regional lists has brought a lot of surprise.

Excerpt from report by Russian news agency RIA Novosti Kiev, 11 April: A compromise between political forces in Ukraine can be found if the decree by President Viktor Yushchenko about the dissolution of the Supreme Council is deemed illegal, Russian Duma MP Aleksandr Lebedev believes.

Text of report by Russian news agency Interfax-AVN