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| Alexander Lebedev sentence is just - and a great relief for his journalists | Alexander Lebedev sentence is just - and a great relief for his journalists |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| So it is possible to get justice in modern Russia. Alexander Lebedev's sentence to 150 hours of community service for punching – or appearing to punch – a man during a television talkshow seems about right in the circumstances. | |
| However much Lebedev was provoked by the man, Sergei Polonsky, he should not have got physical. Media owners should know better. | However much Lebedev was provoked by the man, Sergei Polonsky, he should not have got physical. Media owners should know better. |
| That said, it could have been so much worse for Lebedev if the ridiculous (and sinister) charge of hooliganism motivated by "political hatred" had stuck rather than the simple battery offence. Then he would have gone to jail, which would have been a travesty. | |
| It is not far-fetched to suggest that such a politically influenced prosecution would have been seen across the world as some kind of revenge by the authorities on behalf of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin. | It is not far-fetched to suggest that such a politically influenced prosecution would have been seen across the world as some kind of revenge by the authorities on behalf of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin. |
| Lebedev is co-owner, with a former president, Mikhail Gorbachev, of a paper that Putin and his Kremlin cronies despise – the Moscow-based Novaya Gazeta. | |
| A liberal paper, it has a record of critical and investigative journalism that has often embarrassed Putin's administration. It is to Lebedev's and Gorbachev's credit that they have continued to publish the paper, especially given that four Novaya Gazeta journalists, including the excellent Anna Politkovskaya, have been murdered. | A liberal paper, it has a record of critical and investigative journalism that has often embarrassed Putin's administration. It is to Lebedev's and Gorbachev's credit that they have continued to publish the paper, especially given that four Novaya Gazeta journalists, including the excellent Anna Politkovskaya, have been murdered. |
| It will surely also be the case that journalists working in Britain for Lebedev and his son, Evgeny, will be relieved by Tuesday's sentence. | |
| If he had gone to jail, it was possible that the Russian businesses that are the basis of his fortune would have been devastated too, thereby putting the future of the Independent, Independent on Sunday, i and the London Evening Standard in jeopardy. | |
| No wonder his son Evgeny tweeted immediately after the sentence was announced that it was "not as bad as it might have been" and called it "the end, finally, of a deeply worrying time for us all." | |
| The worrying time began with that silly moment in September 2011 when Lebedev swung a punch at Polonsky, a billionaire property developer known for his eccentric behaviour, during a TV chat show. | The worrying time began with that silly moment in September 2011 when Lebedev swung a punch at Polonsky, a billionaire property developer known for his eccentric behaviour, during a TV chat show. |
| Everyone who knows Lebedev said it was an uncharacteristic act on his part. Lebedev said he was provoked because Polonsky threatened him. | Everyone who knows Lebedev said it was an uncharacteristic act on his part. Lebedev said he was provoked because Polonsky threatened him. |
| Polonsky, in a bizarre turn of events, was arrested in Cambodia at end of last year on a charge of kidnapping several Cambodian seamen. | Polonsky, in a bizarre turn of events, was arrested in Cambodia at end of last year on a charge of kidnapping several Cambodian seamen. |
| He then turned up in Israel and started to taunt Lebvedev in a series of tweets before, in yet another odd twist, calling for Lebedev to be acquitted and pleading with the state prosecutor to drop the hooliganism charge. | He then turned up in Israel and started to taunt Lebvedev in a series of tweets before, in yet another odd twist, calling for Lebedev to be acquitted and pleading with the state prosecutor to drop the hooliganism charge. |
| He did not attend the trial and is being sought in Russia on charges of embezzlement. | He did not attend the trial and is being sought in Russia on charges of embezzlement. |
| In others words, the whole business has been excruciatingly embarrassing for Lebedev. Thank goodness for him, and for his employees, that good sense prevailed in the end. | In others words, the whole business has been excruciatingly embarrassing for Lebedev. Thank goodness for him, and for his employees, that good sense prevailed in the end. |
| Full disclosure: I write a weekly column for the Standard | Full disclosure: I write a weekly column for the Standard |