The ex-wife of the "Kremlin banker" said that she was left homeless with three children

Russian-born British Alexandra Tolstaya is the daughter of the writer and politician Count Nikolai Tolstoy-Miloslavsky and the former common-law wife of businessman Sergei Pugachev. In the past, Pugachev has been called the "Kremlin banker", "Orthodox oligarch" and a close friend of the Russian president.

In 2010, after the revocation of the license and the bankruptcy of Mezhprombank, of which he was the owner, Pugachev fled to Great Britain, and five years later, when his British assets were arrested, to France. His common-law wife refused to leave England, staying with their three common children in Pugachev's London mansion Old Battersea House.

According to Alexandra Tolstaya, Pugachev “persuaded and then forced her to go with him to France,” reports the Daily Mail . However, after spending many years in fear for her life - after fleeing from Russia, attempts were made on Pugachev more than once - Tolstaya decided that it would be safer to stay in London. In response, the banker refused to support the children. “He deprived us of all financial support,” says Tolstaya. - After I did not work for eight years, because he forbade it, it was very difficult to start acting. I was on the verge of despair. " Nevertheless, Tolstaya started her own business by organizing individual trips through the Tien Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan. Things were going well until the pandemic put an end to the tourism industry.

However, the last straw was not this, but the fact that at the height of the lockdown she was forced to vacate Pugachev's mansion Old Battersea House - a 17th century house with an area of 983 sq. m, in which she lived with children after her husband left for France. After the High Court of London recognized the claims of the Russian side to the banker and allowed the sale of his British assets, the mansion was put up for auction and sold.

According to Tolstoy, the Russian side notified her of the need to leave two weeks in advance. In May 2020, the mansion was sold for 12 million pounds (about 1 billion rubles), and Tolstaya and her children were forced to live on suitcases, wandering among friends and relatives. In the end, she decided to auction her furniture at Christies, and with the proceeds she rented a room in London and opened the interior store The Tolstoy Edit, where you can buy antiques, antique fabrics and carpets.