Lebedev moves closer to buying the Independent

Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev is one step closer to buying the Independent newspaper today after the Office of Fair Trading gave him the green light. Lebedev also owns 75 per cent of London's Evening Standard, but the OFT said the company resulting from his takeover of Independent News & Media (INM) would not be large enough to require investigation on competition issues.

The ruling means there is very little to prevent Lebedev from adding the Independent to his media empire, and it is thought a deal could be announced as soon as Sunday this week. A takeover of INM will also hand the billionaire the Independent on Sunday.

Rumours are flying about who the former KGB agent will bring in to edit the papers. His wish list has been variously said to include Spectator columnist Rod Liddle, Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, former BBC director general Greg Dyke and Private Eye editor Ian Hislop. The new owner could also spell a renaissance for the loss-making Indy - he has already pledged a £30m investment to the Evening Standard over three years and promised no editorial interference.

And Lebedev's credentials as a defender of the freedom of the press are impressive. With his mentor Mikhail Gorbachev, he owns 49 per cent of Novaya Gazeta, the Putin-baiting, Kremlin-challenging newspaper which has seen four of its journalists murdered in the last eight years – most infamously, Anna Politkovskaya.

Lebedev has an unsurprisingly staunch supporter in Geordie Greig, the former Tatler chief whom he installed as editor of the Standard. Greig told the Times: "On the day he bought the Standard, he couldn't be there because he was at the funeral in Russia of two journalists and a lawyer who had been murdered. So no one should question his seriousness in promoting press freedom.

"He's incredibly polite and intensely curious - the sort of person who pursues visions. He believes passionately that there should be as much democratic freedom as