Italy ‘was monitoring Lebedev villa at time of
Boris Johnson visit’
Intelligence service believed property was being used
for espionage purposes, documentary claims
Pippa
Crerar and Luke Harding
Mon 26 Jun
2023 16.00 BST
Italy’s
secret intelligence service was monitoring the luxury Umbrian villa owned by
the Lebedev family when Boris Johnson visited in April 2018 while he was
foreign secretary, a documentary has claimed.
The agency
believed the property, Palazzo Terranova, and a second villa nearby owned by
the family were being used for espionage purposes, according to the Channel 4
documentary Boris, the Lord and the Russian Spy.
Italian
security concluded in a secret document that Alexander Lebedev, a former
Russian spy who became a wealthy businessman, had continued to enjoy the
“favour and friendship” of Vladimir Putin and queried whether he had genuinely
severed ties with Russian intelligence after leaving the KGB decades earlier.
It stated
that Lebedev’s resignation from the Russian spy agency, for which he served in
London between 1988 and 1992, was “considered by many to be unclear”.
Johnson
attended a Nato summit in Brussels in April 2018 where leaders agreed it was
“highly likely” that Russia was behind the Salisbury nerve agent attack the
month before.
Hours
later, he flew to Italy where he attended a party hosted by Lebedev’s media
magnate son, Evgeny, in Palazzo Terranova. Johnson had been a frequent visitor,
attending social gatherings on at least half a dozen occasions dating back to
his time as London mayor.
Johnson
admitted for the first time last July, during a session with the Commons
liaison committee, that he met the former KGB agent at his Italian palazzo
without officials present during his visit. He told MPs: “As far as I am aware,
no government business was discussed.”
The report
by Italy’s foreign intelligence agency, written for the former prime minister
Giuseppe Conte and seen by the film-makers, was part of a wider security
service investigation that was shown to members of the Italian parliament’s
intelligence oversight committee in 2021.
The
documentary reports that, unknown to Johnson, Italy’s secret intelligence
service had been monitoring the Lebedevs’ two Umbrian properties for several
years, suspecting they were being used for spying.
Lia
Quartapelle, an MP who sits on the Italian parliament’s foreign affairs
committee, told the film-makers: “The conclusion of the report is that it
cannot be ruled out that he [Alexander Lebedev] still works for the KGB or he
still is involved in KGB activities.
“The report
says that it cannot be excluded that Lebedev today, up to date, enjoys the
favour of Vladimir Putin. You should really be careful on what kind of
relationship you keep with such a person.”
She added:
“Clearly from the report, it stands out that the properties were part and tool
of a network of relationships. They were part and tool of a strategy of
influence. And so it was noticed who was there, how many times people went
there and so on.”
A
spokesperson for Johnson said: “As this programme makes clear, there were no
concerns about Lord Lebedev … Lord Lebedev is a British citizen. He has
invested in British journalism and has extensively criticised the Russian
regime.
“It is not
right to judge people on the basis of their country of birth or the sound of
their surname. This is a tiresome and xenophobic campaign.”
Chris
Steele, a former British intelligence officer who was the head of MI6’s Russia
desk between 2006 and 2009, said: “As an intelligence professional, I’m flabbergasted
that a serving government minister would even consider spending a weekend in
Italy in the castle that was owned by a former KGB officer who’d worked against
the UK.”
Matthew
Dunn, another former MI6 officer, told the film-makers: “We have to remember,
politicians are not trained to handle these situations. Ergo they are
immediately putting themselves into extremely vulnerable situations. To go from
a position of naivety or being blase about the whole thing then, of course,
you’re laying yourself wide open for being blackmailed in some guise.”
A
spokesperson for Evgeny Lebedev told the documentary makers: “Any suggestion he
was or would be party to allowing any form of espionage, whether connected to
Russia or anyone else, would be false. This allegation bears the hallmarks of
anti-Russian racist harassment.”
Alexander
Lebedev has been approached for comment.
Boris, the
Lord and the Russian Spy: Dispatches will be broadcast on Tuesday 27 June at
10pm on Channel 4 and channel4.com
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