Italy’s secret intelligence service was monitoring the luxury Umbrian villa owned by the Lebedev family when Boris Johnson visited in April 2018 while he was foreign secretary, a documentary has claimed.
The agency believed the property, Palazzo Terranova, and a second villa nearby owned by the family were being used for espionage purposes, according to the Channel 4 documentary Boris, the Lord and the Russian Spy.
Italian security concluded in a secret document that Alexander Lebedev, a former Russian spy who became a wealthy businessman, had continued to enjoy the “favour and friendship” of Vladimir Putin and queried whether he had genuinely severed ties with Russian intelligence after leaving the KGB decades earlier.
It stated that Lebedev’s resignation from the Russian spy agency, for which he served in London between 1988 and 1992, was “considered by many to be unclear”.
Johnson attended a Nato summit in Brussels in April 2018 where leaders agreed it was “highly likely” that Russia was behind the Salisbury nerve agent attack the month before.
Hours later, he flew to Italy where he attended a party hosted by Lebedev’s media magnate son, Evgeny, in Palazzo Terranova. Johnson had been a frequent visitor, attending social gatherings on at least half a dozen occasions dating back to his time as London mayor.
Johnson admitted for the first time last July, during a session with the Commons liaison committee, that he met the former KGB agent at his Italian palazzo without officials present during his visit. He told MPs: “As far as I am aware, no government business was discussed.”
The report by Italy’s foreign intelligence agency, written for the former prime minister Giuseppe Conte and seen by the film-makers, was part of a wider security service investigation that was shown to members of the Italian parliament’s intelligence oversight committee in 2021.
The documentary reports that, unknown to Johnson, Italy’s secret intelligence service had been monitoring the Lebedevs’ two Umbrian properties for several years, suspecting they were being used for spying.
Lia Quartapelle, an MP who sits on the Italian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told the film-makers: “The conclusion of the report is that it cannot be ruled out that he [Alexander Lebedev] still works for the KGB or he still is involved in KGB activities.
“The report says that it cannot be excluded that Lebedev today, up to date, enjoys the favour of Vladimir Putin. You should really be careful on what kind of relationship you keep with such a person.”
She added: “Clearly from the report, it stands out that the properties were part and tool of a network of relationships. They were part and tool of a strategy of influence. And so it was noticed who was there, how many times people went there and so on.”
A spokesperson for Johnson said: “As this programme makes clear, there were no concerns about Lord Lebedev … Lord Lebedev is a British citizen. He has invested in British journalism and has extensively criticised the Russian regime.
“It is not right to judge people on the basis of their country of birth or the sound of their surname. This is a tiresome and xenophobic campaign.”
Chris Steele, a former British intelligence officer who was the head of MI6’s Russia desk between 2006 and 2009, said: “As an intelligence professional, I’m flabbergasted that a serving government minister would even consider spending a weekend in Italy in the castle that was owned by a former KGB officer who’d worked against the UK.”
Matthew Dunn, another former MI6 officer, told the film-makers: “We have to remember, politicians are not trained to handle these situations. Ergo they are immediately putting themselves into extremely vulnerable situations. To go from a position of naivety or being blase about the whole thing then, of course, you’re laying yourself wide open for being blackmailed in some guise.”
A spokesperson for Evgeny Lebedev told the documentary makers: “Any suggestion he was or would be party to allowing any form of espionage, whether connected to Russia or anyone else, would be false. This allegation bears the hallmarks of anti-Russian racist harassment.”
Alexander Lebedev has been approached for comment.
Boris, the Lord and the Russian Spy: Dispatches will be broadcast on Tuesday 27 June at 10pm on Channel 4 and channel4.com
