For a dummies guide to infiltrating the British establishment look no further than Eugeny Lebedev, proud owner of two UK newspapers, who was shoehorned into the House of Lords by Boris Johnson against the advice of the security services. Not that Lebedev is remotely stupid, far from it, but his targets certainly were, bewitched by his billions, his ex-KGB father’s Italian castle, private jets and patronage. They ignored his tweet hinting that MI6 might have poisoned Livtenenko, the defector murdered on British soil, which two inquiries deemed Putin’s responsibility, and his support for Russian action in Syria and Crimea. Though his newspaper has come out recently against the Ukraine invasion.
Eugeny was born 8 May 1980 in Moscow, his father Alexander, a former KGB spy turned billionaire oligarch with investments in occupied Crimea, the National Reserve Bank, which held big stakes in Gazprom, the state oil giant, Aeroflot, the Russian airline, and a military jet manufacturer. Lebedev Sr styled himself a dissident but it was suspected he belonged to a class of oligarchs who had licence from Putin to pose as opponents while actually furthering Russia’s interests in the West. Senior was the original owner of the London Evening Standard and Independent newspapers which his son now runs.
Lebedev junior’s friendship started when Boris became mayor, elected for a second term with the Lebedev media outlet’s support. After that Boris travelled more frequently to the Lebedev Umbrian villa, including during his time as Foreign Secretary when he had oversight of MI6. He even made a trip in April 2018, weeks after the Skripals were poisoned in Salisbury. ‘He did so without his close protection officers. Johnson has never provided an account of the visit, or explained why he went.’ Just 24 hours after winning his landslide general election in December 2019, Boris attended Alexander Lebedev’s 60th birthday party in London.
According to the Sunday Times this was when he pushed hard for Lebedev’s peerage. “One said he had started speaking about it almost immediately after arriving in Downing Street. “He pathologically wanted to get this peerage over the line,” a source said. They added: “It was ‘Lebedev needs a peerage, he needs a peerage’ . . . it was immediate.”
What is wonderfully and alarmingly descriptive is how Lebedev Jnr’s chart fits with the UK’s. He has a Taurus Sun in an uncompromising opposition to Uranus, a power-hungry inconjunct to Pluto and a hard-working trine to Saturn; with a high-energy Mars Jupiter in Virgo.
His Taurus Sun is deeply embedded in the UK 8th house opposition the 2nd house UK financial Neptune and square the UK financial Venus. His controlling Pluto squares the UK 10th house Moon (= the ruling classes). And his super-enthusiastic Mars Jupiter in Virgo opposes the UK’s Pluto. He was custom-built to insert himself in with the great and the good.
His Taurus Sun is also conjunct Boris’s Jupiter and opposition Boris’s careless/over-hopeful Neptune; with Leb Jnr’s Venus in Gemini in a friendly conjunction to Boris’s Sun.
At the moment Eugeny Lebedev looks rattled as tr Uranus moves to conjunct his Sun from the middle of June this year, on and off through a rocky two years ahead as tr Uranus continues next year into 2024 to oppose his Uranus. Late this May he picks up catastrophic Neptune midpoint transits, repeating into 2023; with August to November this year seeing his hopes dissolve into disappointment. His relationship with Boris is also slipping and sliding through this year.
His father Alexander Lebedev, 16 December 1960, is also looking less than thrilled with tr Neptune square his Sagittarius Sun from exactly now on and off into 2023; with a punishing 2023/24 from midpoints.
This is in no way a pointed comment involving Boris Johnson – but given how the Russian mind works, I wonder if down the line some kompromat material might filter out into the open in revenge, given how many high profile UK figures were involved with the oligarchs.
I read this article in The Times. It was jaw dropping. How did Johnson get away with not taking his protection officers? He could have been drugged or anything. Boris is beguiled by money. Once a KGB, always a KGB. Boris knew isfriend’s father was a KGB spy in London as well and Lebedev has made know secret of being a true Russian. The Times feedback gave Boris a very hard time.
No not know. Furthermore, the same article had a paragraph about Gove and Johnson deciding to come out for Brexit, at a dinner held at Johnson’s home. Apart from their wives, the only other guest was Lebedev.
George Osborne was/is employed by Lebedev – taking a great deal of money from him to ‘edit’ mass circulation propaganda organs for him.
What a ‘Democracy’!
What’s interesting with Lebedevs is that they were immensely better connected than Putin in Soviet System. Alexander went to Moscow State Institute of International Affairs, I think Putin tried to get in numerous times, but was rejected. He was stationed to Soviet Embassy in London at his first foreign assignment, a position that was only behind Washington in prestige. His firsr wife and Evgeny’s mother Natalia Sokolova is a daughter of a famous Soviet zoologist – Alexander’s father too was a scientist, so this is how they probably met. But I have a sense Alexander would have “made it” in Soviet system, too, and that probably didn’t endear him to Putin, or his closest silovik, who are from Leningrad, and had less distinguished careers. I think this is exactly why he must have cut some kind of a deal with Putin early on to not have his fortune confiscated or ending up assassinated, the faith of other oligarchs showing slightest signs of disobediance to Putin.
Thanks Marjorie. What a web! Interesting to see how both Lebedevs have Venus/Neptune aspects. The charm, glamour, and slippery nature of their finances described there. I noticed that Eugeny’s Neptune opposes Boris’ Mercury – so is that who’s fooling who somewhere in the mix? EL’s Sun/Mercury connect with BJ’s Jupiter/Neptune opposition – perhaps something further emerges around the time of the 15 Taurus lunar eclipse in November?
Otherwise, yes, I wonder whether much will ever emerge from behind the scenes. From the little I know, there’s a great deal!
Thank you Majorie for such an interesting post on the entangled relationship between both Lebedevs and the UK and bj. Chilling and incendiary at the same time. Could the final fling of Pluto in Capricorn provide the impetus for a self-cleansing of the Conservative Party (by first getting rid of bj) or does it have to be done at the ballot box? If the latter, is Starmer looking up to the job? Many thanks for your piercing astrological focus on current political events.
I worked with an ex gf, well known, of bj and she told me in passing and without evident malice that he is/was alcoholic and had a big issue with the marching powder. You had to be there but I absolutely believe her. That Jupiter opp Neptune is tight and speaks for more than just his affected persona and chronic dishonesty I think. Dishonesty around money for sure. My ex business partner had it close too and he was a narcissist and sociopath
No wonder they found traces of powder in No 10 office toilets last year. The suspicion went to Gove when it could be the ‘honourable’ PM himself.
All these parties that Lebedev held would be a perfect cover for loose tongues.
@Gamal, I remember a story by a Finnish journalist when BoJo was promoted to PM about how he’d spend a lot of time at the same Brussels bar when they were both stationed there. He’d been surprised about BoJo’s rise in politics, not because he couldn’t talk or interact with people with opinions differing from his, but because BoJo had been in that bar “a lot” and seemingly had trouble meeting deadlines. Now, if one’s drinking was heavy enough for a Finnish journalist take note in the early 1990’s, it must have been bad.
Good one Marjorie….it’s in Russias interest to keep a suborned and corrupted PM in office as long as possible. But in the same way Epstein and maxwell recorded the sexual encounters between powerful men and underage girls for kompromat reasons ( it’s even a Russian word), I would bet a lot the Umbrian villa was also wired up for the same reason. Evidently Jordan, the “glamour “ model attended one of these c*ke fuelled sessions in Umbria. Eh? Brexit is the elephant in the room. BJ is an owned creature as are his cronies, colleagues and cabinet, imo. Our country is profoundly fuc*ed.
One of Mick Herron’s spy comedy novels has an outrageously irresponsible Cabinet Minister whom reviews said was a lightly disguised BJ, which startled me – partly because I hadn’t realised he was quite as hair-raising and that there was no libel kickback from it, even though it was fictionalised. C*** was definitely to the foreground.
I’ve been away from London for two decades but when I was there the gossip that circulated within the westminster/financial circles was always mind-blowing and never made it to the public prints because of the draconian libel laws. So what the general populace knew and what the London bubble knew were miles apart.
According to The Sunday Times one guest, in Umbria, was Katie Price. Who took her top of and exposed her breast in front of all the guest.