While today, it’s one of the wealthiest banks in Russia. Alfa-Bank and National Reserve Bank are the only two banks that survived the deep Russian financial crisis in 1998. Recently, he acquired about 11% of the Russian national airline, a major share in the Russian aircraft-building industry and holds shares in different financial institutions such as RAO UES, Gazprom and Sberbank. Business aside, he has also tried his hand at politics. Most notably, Lebedev served as a member of Russia’s parliament until 2007, after which he tried to form a new social-democrat party with Mikhael Gorbachev. Unfortunately, the effort turned out to be unsuccessful. Lebedev financially backs the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation which has set up a free children’s cancer hospital in St. Petersburg.
