Russian father-and-son businessmen Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev | EPA A £100 million Russian bet on British media Losses on Lebedev U.K. titles narrow for a second year even though print circulation of the Independent is down.

LONDON — The Russian father-and-son businessmen Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev have sunk more than £100 million (€140 million) into their British media interests since 2009, including the Evening Standard and Independent newspapers, according to company accounts.

Alexander Lebedev, the Moscow-based businessman and former KGB officer, ploughed another £17.9 million into his U.K. media group last year, as it expanded beyond newspapers into regional television, accounts made available by the U.K.'s company registry over the weekend showed.

The costs of opening London Live, the Lebedevs’ new TV channel, overshadowed a relatively better financial year for the Independent newspapers, and swelled pre-tax losses at Lebedev Holdings to £19.4 million from £14.2 million the previous year.

The Lebedevs have been significant players in London’s media scene since buying the Evening Standard in 2009. Their holdings include four newspapers and a TV station, with annual revenues of £119.4 million. Evgeny has become a fixture on London's social circuit.

Although Evgeny boasted on Twitter last week that shrinking losses at the Independent titles amounted to “one of the biggest turnarounds in modern media,” the accounts reveal that the group is still heavily reliant on the deep pockets of its Russian owners.

The loans by Alexander and Evgeny to the media operations increased by 18 percent to £104.8 million last year, and the pair are owed another £6.8 million in interest on the debt, the company documents show.

Deloitte, the auditors, warned of a “material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt” about the media group’s ability to continue as a going concern if the Lebedevs were to pull their support.

The Russian owners do not intend to demand repayment of the loans in the short term and about half of the money they have poured into the media enterprises is interest-free, the accounts added.

Pre-tax losses at Independent Print, which publishes The Independent and its pared-down, low-cost cousin, the i, shrank to £8.5 million from £14.5 million a year earlier, despite turnover falling 2 percent to £55.2 million because of a slump in print advertising.

It is the second year that losses on the Independent titles have narrowed and the newspapers will benefit from further cost reductions in the years ahead, including from a renegotiated print contract, the accounts said.

Print circulation of the daily Independent has plummeted, as has that of most British newspapers, in recent years.

It sold an average of about 60,000 copies a day in May, according to the latest official industry figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. That is less than a third of what it sold when the Lebedevs bought the paper in 2010.

i, which at 40 pence per copy is £1 cheaper than the flagship paper, boosted the publisher’s reach by targeting budget-conscious readers, although its circulation fell three percent year-on-year to about 280,000 in May, according to the ABC figures.

The website, too, has helped to increase the Independent's reach. It also turned a pre-tax profit of £587,000 last year, although it would require a substantial funding injection if it had to stand on its own without being propped up by the newspaper, its parent company said.

The Evening Standard, the London free-sheet that the Lebedevs bought in 2009, made a £1.1 million pre-tax profit on revenues of £62.9 million.

London Live, the Lebedev’s venture into regional TV, racked up losses of £11.6 million after struggling to attract viewers in its first year.