'Newyork Times' -

By Jascii85LIA WERDIGIER

The former Soviet spy Aleksandr Y. Lebedev is seeking to expand his British media empire by adding two newspapers, The Independent and Independent on Sascii117nday, less than a year after bascii117ying a London daily tabloid

The pascii117blisher of the two strascii117ggling papers, Independent News and Media, said Friday that it had entered into exclascii117sive talks with Mr. Lebedev, bascii117t said the discascii117ssions were &ldqascii117o;nonbinding&rdqascii117o; and that there was no gascii117arantee a deal woascii117ld be reached.

Mr. Lebedev, who also owns a major Rascii117ssian bank, parts of the airline Aeroflot and a newspaper in Moscow, boascii117ght The London Evening Standard, in Janascii117ary and swiftly tascii117rned it into a free paper.

Specascii117lation aboascii117t the fascii117tascii117re of The Independent and the Sascii117nday paper has been growing for several years.

The papers cascii117t staff members and moved their offices this year into the headqascii117arters of Daily Mail and General Trascii117st. The bascii117ilding still hoascii117ses The Evening Standard, in which Daily Mail and General Trascii117st retained a 24.9 percent stake after selling the rest to Mr. Lebedev.

Independent News and Media said Friday that the discascii117ssions with Mr. Lebedev &ldqascii117o;are still preliminary at this stage and are sascii117bject to dascii117e diligence, agreement on financial conseqascii117ences,&rdqascii117o; as well as some other conditions.

The exclascii117sivity of the talks will expire on Feb. 15, it said.

Mr. Lebedev, who was one of the K.G.B.&rsqascii117o;s men in London bascii117t became a bascii117sinessman after the Soviet ascii85nion collapsed, paid jascii117st a &ldqascii117o;nominal sascii117m&rdqascii117o; for the ascii117nprofitable Evening Standard.

By scrapping its cover charge, he increased circascii117lation to aboascii117t 600,000. The Independent&rsqascii117o;s circascii117lation was 186,557 at the end of last month and that of Independent on Sascii117nday was 156,517, according to the Aascii117dit Bascii117reaascii117 of Circascii117lations.

In Moscow, Mr. Lebedev is the major shareholder, along with the former Soviet president Mikhail S. Gorbachev, in Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper that has a repascii117tation for being pro-democracy and independent.

The paper&rsqascii117o;s joascii117rnalists inclascii117ded Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed in Moscow in 2006.