Oligarch's bank to support crime-fighting fund set up by arch enemy of Russian president Vladimir Putin

No one knows how much money Vladimir Putin has, or how many credit cards. But if the oligarch Alexander Lebedev has his way, the powerful Russian leader will be the first holder of a brand new card designed to fight the country's notorious corruption problem.

The suggestion will be taken with irony inside Russia, where accusations of corruption and the accumulation of untold wealth continue to dog Putin and his close associates.

In a statement posted on his website, Lebedev said his bank was behind a new project by anti-corruption fighter and Putin foe Alexey Navalny. Lebedev's National Reserve Bank will issue a debit card that will see 1% of all purchases donated to RosPil, the fund launched by Navalny to expose corruption inside the Russian government.

"I'd like to 'marry' this project with the authorities' official position, so that on the official level, the authorities support citizens' intention to finance the struggle against corruption themselves," Lebedev said.

He added that he wanted "to approach Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] as a citizen, so he shows us all by example."

Lebedev said he hoped Putin would get the first of the 40,000 to 50,000 debit cards his bank initially plans to issue as part of the project.

Navalny has risen to become one of the leading opposition figures inside Russia by exposing the ubiquitous corruption inside the Russian government. He has branded the ruling party, United Russia, "the party of crooks and thieves" and Putin "the main crook and thief" and has laughed off suggestions that Putin and his prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, are serious about battling corruption.

He has, in turn, been persecuted for speaking out, facing several arrests, a search of his home by masked prosecutors and an investigation by prosecutors that his supporters fear could lead to a jail term as punishment for his political activities. Any association with him could have consequences for Lebedev.

The oligarch took to his Twitter account several times on Wednesday to repeat that he was "not financing the opposition". Yet the billionaire owner of the Evening Standard and Independent, and co-owner of Russia's liberal Novaya Gazeta newspaper, appears to have found his man.

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