Londongrad: From Russia with Cash, the Inside Story of the Oligarchs

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Mark Hollingsworth

Stewart Lansley

Fourth Estate, London, 2009, English

Nonfiction, General

ISBN: 9780007278862

From the Publisher. 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.

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Carl Magnusson

On Carl Magnusson’s Book List

Good insights into recent Russian history and its effects on London society; commentary on cultural differences and the boom of the luxury market.

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