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| Alexander Lebedev |
Lebedev said security service pressure on his banking business had become so great it was impossible to continue. Last November, the National Reserve Bank headquarters in Moscow were raided by 30 masked police officers while the billionaire, the financial backer of the opposition Novaya Gazeta newspaper, was inside the building. The announcement came one day after Lebedev released a video detailing the raid and alleged corruption by the Federal Security Service officers involved.
Also he has written to the head of Russia's security service offering his experience from 11 years of service with the organisation to help to expose corruption in business and the country's "power structures".
The entrepreneur, who has been an outspoken critic of the Russian government, said a number of FSB generals had been targeting his business with claims that he held "unlawful intentions". He pointed out that similar allegations had been levelled by the FSB at Sergei Storchak, a finance minister and friend who spent 11 months in prison before the case against him fell apart in court.
In an open letter to Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the FSB, Mr Lebedev said: "I am ready to offer my experience to help expose the corruption which pervades Russia\'s financial sphere and the country\'s power structures."
Also he wrote on his blog, "What’s business if it only exists in a state of battle with the FSB?"
