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FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
Roman Abramovich with his girlfriend Daria Zhukova on holiday in the Caribbean in 2008. His favourite island is St Bartholomew, where he owns a rambling villa and loves to jet-ski.
CHELSKI
Roman Abramovich enjoying the benefits of his multi-million investment in Chelsea. Here he celebrates winning the Premier League in 2005 with John Terry (left), Frank Lampard (middle) and Eidur Gudjohnsen (right).
PRISONER OF THE KREMLIN
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former owner of the Yukos oil company, on trial in Moscow in 2005. The billionaire oligarch was convicted of tax evasion and money laundering.
JOINT VENTURE
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska (right). One of Russia’s richest men, Deripaska has enjoyed a close relationship with the Kremlin.
BUSINESS AS USUAL
President Yeltsin with Boris Berezovsky (right) one of Russia’s most controversial oligarchs, in Moscow in 1999. The following year Berezovsky fled to London.
TO THE MANOR BORN
Boris Berezovsky in the well-manicured grounds of his estate at Wentworth Park, Surrey, which he bought in 2000 for £20.5m. The tycoon has spent an estimated £60 million on property in London and Surrey.
RED PRESS BARON
Alexander Lebedev (left), the former KGB officer and owner of London’s Evening Standard newspaper, with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, and Bono of U2, at Hampton Court attending a party for the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation in 2008.
A GOOD CAUSE
Evgeny Lebedev (left), son of Alexander, with Gorbachev and Geordie Greig, editor of the Evening Standard, at the June 2008 fund-raiser for the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation.
SUPER-MODEL, SUPER-RICH
Naomi Campbell with boyfriend Vladimir Doronin, a Russian billionaire property developer, on his yacht in the south of France in the summer of 2008.
WEALTH ON THE WATER
Pelorus, the pride of Abramovich’s fleet of floating palaces, in St Petersburg with St Isaac’s, the landmark Russian orthodox church, in the background.
BLADE RUNNER
Most oligarchs love helicopters, mainly for commuting to and from the office. This one was used while Abramovich was on holiday in Sardinia in 2008.
FLIGHT CAPITAL
This Boeing 767, which Abramovich bought for £55 million, has been compared to the US President’s Air Force One. It has the same air missile avoidance system and has room for 30 seated dining guests.
THE MODEL AND THE ARISTOCRAT
Russian model Natalia Vodianova and her husband Justin Portman arrive at a screening during the 2008 Venice Film Festival.
THE ART OF THE DEAL
Damien Hirst with Daria Zhukova, girlfriend of Roman Abramovich and a patron of contemporary art, at Sotheby’s auction house in London in 2008.
THE BROTHERS
Christian Candy (left) and Nick Candy (right), the property developers, at the Royal Parks Charity Gala at the Serpentine Lido in Hyde Park in 2008. The Candy Brothers’ success has been partly due to selling and renovating property to wealthy Russians in London.
ROYAL FORTUNE
Prince Michael of Kent, a fluent Russian speaker, next to his Bentley in Moscow’s Red Square in 1999. The Prince was participating in a London-Moscow rally involving 12 vintage Bentleys.
THE ULTIMATE SPIN DOCTOR
Lord Bell, former media guru to Lady Thatcher while she was Prime Minister, has worked as a PR advisor to Berezovsky and other Russian exiles in London.
BANKING ON RUSSIA
Nat Rothschild, the son of banking scion Lord Jacob Rothschild, attends a private dinner at Annabel’s club in Mayfair in 2007. A friend and advisor to Deripaska, he is said to have made a fortune from his Russian connections.
POLITICAL STORM
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne on 22 October 2008 - the day after he acknowledged that he made ‘a mistake’ in being involved in a discussion about a potential £50,000 donation to the Tory party by Deripaska. He strongly denied soliciting any donation.
SCANDAL AT SEA
Deripaska’s 238-foot yacht the Queen K in Corfu where Lord Mandelson, George Osborne, Nat Rothschild and the tycoon met in August 2008. Their conversations later became the source of intense political controversy
PRINCE OF DARKNESS
Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, at the Lord Mayor’s banquet in November 2008. He met Deripaska while on holiday in Corfu as a guest of Nat Rothschild.
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Stephen Curtis, the 45-year-old Mayfair-based lawyer who worked for Khordorkovsky and Berezovsky. Originally from Sunderland, he died in a mysterious helicopter crash in March 2004.
FORTRESS
Pennsylvania Castle on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The 18th century £3 million home was a haven to Curtis. Guests attending his parties at the castle were told that there was only one rule: no cameras.
CRASH LANDING
The remains of the Agusta 109E helicopter which spiralled out of control while taking Curtis home from Battersea heliport. It crashed near Bournemouth airport.
CREDENTIALS
The Russian Security Service badge of Alexander Litvinenko when he joined the FSB in 1988.
A SPY IN LONDON
Former Russian FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko fled to the UK in 2000 after publicly criticising his former spymasters.
DEATH OF A MAVERICK
Litvinenko in his bed at University College Hospital, London. As he lay dying - from a lethal dose of polonium – he claimed that his murder was orchestrated by Vladimir Putin.
MURDER OF A DISSIDENT
Anna Politkovskaya, the courageous Russian journalist renowned for exposing state atrocities in Chechnya. In 2006 she was shot dead near her apartment in Moscow.
CONTRACT KILLING
American business reporter Paul Klebnikov in early 2004 with a special Forbes edition on one hundred Russian billionaires. Later that year he was murdered in Moscow by unknown assailants who fired nine shots from a slowly moving car.
IN THE FRAME
Private security consultant Andrei Lugovoi (right) who has been accused by Scotland Yard detectives of poisoning Alexander Litvinenko. Now living in Moscow, British prosecutors have requested his extradition. Lugovoi has vigorously protested his innocence, even claiming that MI6 was behind the killing.
THE PARTNER
Georgian billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili (right) with his business partner and closest friend Berezovsky. The Georgian oligarch died of a heart attack at his mansion near Leatherhead, Surrey, in February 2008.
COUNTRY REFUGE
Fyning Hill, the sprawling country estate in West Sussex which Abramovich bought for £12 million in 1999.
PIED-A-TERRE
The Belgravia house which Deripaska bought in 2003 for £17 million. The Grade I listed mansion, decorated in a Regency style, used to be the home of Sir Henry ‘Chips’ Channon, the society host, diarist and Conservative MP
FESTIVAL
Russian women celebrate their country’s winter festival in Trafalgar Square, London in January 2007.
MOSCOW-ON-THAMES
More Russians gather in Trafalgar Square to participate in the 2007 winter festival which celebrates Russian culture, music and dance.
HOW TO MARRY AN OLIGARCH
Society girl Ksenia Sobchak gives a press conference on her and television host Oksana Robski’s book offering tongue-in-cheek advice on how to ensnare a Russian tycoon.
THE FAMILY
Oleg Deripaska’s wife Polina (left) with Tatyana Dyachenko, the daughter of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, with her husband Valentin Yumashev, at a music premiere.
THE NEW TSARS
President Medvedev (left) and Prime Minister Putin as portrayed by Russian painter Nikas Safronov, who also paints portraits of oligarchs’ wives.
RICH CHOCOLATE
A group of Russian business magnates in chocolate as displayed in one of Moscow’s cafes in December 2003. Organizers of the display declared: "You may live a sweet life, but you might be eaten any time.’ (Left to right) Vladimir Potanin, Roman Abramovich, Boris Berezovsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Mikhail Fridman, Anatoly Chubais and Oleg Deripaska.