Alexander Lebedev and his fight with corruption
Alexander LebedevInvestigative journalism is something I want to invest in more.
A former KGB agent turned UK newspaper boss has vowed to help journalists expose corruption in Russia and around the world.
Alexander Lebedev said anger over his stance on liberal values was behind a recent raid on his investment bank in Moscow.
The billionaire owner of The Independent and London's Evening Standard was inside the headquarters of his National Reserve Bank when armed police burst in and officers searched through documents.
Mr Lebedev spoke at the annual conference of the Society of Editors just days after Russian journalist Oleg Kashin was beaten almost to death near his Moscow home.
Campaigners say there have been 19 unsolved killings of reporters in the country since 2000.
Mr Lebedev also owns Novaya Gazeta, a Russian paper which has criticised the Kremlin and which is co-owned by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Several of its journalists have been killed after exposing wrongdoing at the highest levels of Russian society, most famously the renowned reporter Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot outside her Moscow flat in Ocotber 2006.
Mr Lebedev pledged that the title would continue to expose corruption.
Speaking at the conference on Sunday, he said: "I want to invest further in ways to stop corruption on a global scale.
An armed man during the police raid on Lebedev's bank
"The millions of bank accounts held by shady people in sunny places are not the right way for our countries to run their economies.
"We need transparency and for the international community of journalists to be able to work together to report on the billions of dollars that are hidden and often stolen."
He added: "Investigative journalism is something I want to invest in more."
Mr Lebedev praised the exposure of the British MPs' expenses scandal and said he wanted to see similar transparency in Russia.