The amazing true story of how London became home to the Russian
super-rich. A dazzling tale of incredible wealth, ferocious disputes,
beautiful women, private jets, mega-yachts, the world's best
footballers - and chauffeur-driven Range Rovers with tinted windows.
A group of buccaneering Russian oligarchs made colossal fortunes after
the collapse of communism - and many of them came to London to enjoy
their new-found wealth. Londongrad tells for the first time the true
story of their journeys from Moscow and St Petersburg to mansions in
Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Surrey - and takes you into a shimmering
world of audacious multi-billion pound deals, outrageous spending and
rancorous feuds.
But while London's flashiest restaurants echoed to Russian laughter and
Bond Street shop-owners totted up their profits, darker events also
played themselves out. The killing of ex-KGB man Alexander Litvinenko in
London to the death - in a helicopter crash he all but predicted - of
Stephen Curtis, the lawyer to many of Britain's richest Russians,
chilled London's Russians and many of those who know them.
This is the story of how Russia's wealth was harvested and brought to
London - some of it spent by Roman Abramovich on his beloved Chelsea
Football Club, some of it spent by Boris Berezovsky in his battles with
Russia's all-powerful Vladimir Putin. Londongrad is a must-read for
anyone interested in how vast wealth is created, the luxury it can buy
and the power and intrigue it produces.
