The former partner of a Russian oligarch nicknamed “Putin’s banker” claims he attacked her and then “sedated and handcuffed” her when she tried to tell police.
Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, 50, said billionaire Sergei Pugachev subjected her to years of “horrible” physical and emotional abuse before he was forced into exile in 2015.
In an emotional interview, the Anglo-Russian aristocrat accused him of repeatedly beating her, drugging her, isolating her from her friends and even trying to kidnap her children.
Countess Tolstoy, a travel writer who also runs a horseback riding holiday business, met Pugachev in 2008.
They had three children, but Tolstoy says his ex-partner has refused to pay a cent to support his sons, Alexei and Ivan, and his daughter Maria for the past five years.
Countess Alexandra Tolstoy with her ex-partner, billionaire oligarch Sergei Pugachev, on vacation in 2013, two years before he was forced into exile.
Pugachev earned the nickname “Putin’s banker” due to his close ties to the Russian president in the early 2000s (Putin and Pugachev pictured in 2000).
Countess Tolstoy in London in 2016. She claims that Pugachev would go “absolutely crazy, shouting at me, the most appalling abuse.”
Sergei Pugachev photographed in Paris in 2015 after fleeing to France following accusations over the legitimacy of his business ventures.
Countess Alexandra Tolstoy photographed at her Oxfordshire home in 2021. She claims that Pugachev was followed by his family while he was exiled in France.
It also alleges that Pugachev, 61, who earned the nickname “Putin’s banker” for his close ties to the Russian president in the early 2000s, has been followed by his family, even though he now lives in France. after its UK assets were frozen.
Detailing the daily abuse she claims to have faced, the Dorset-born adventurer and broadcaster told the Difficult Women podcast: “It went absolutely crazy. Yelling at me, only the most horrific abuse…
‘There were many tests: how far can I go, what can I do? And once I got pregnant, she knew there was really no turning back.
She added: “I think it was the worst episode ever, we were in Moscow, I went out to dinner with a girlfriend and when I came back… he flew out of his room, ripped off my dress and physically attacked me.”
She said she was ‘terrified’ and ran to a police station: ‘I said, ‘Look, they just attacked me,’ and they [said they] I knew exactly who Sergei was and they weren’t going to help me.
Miss Tolstoy, a distant relative of War and Peace author Leo Tolstoy, says Pugachev had her sedated after the incident.
“Then he had a psychiatrist come in, he injected me with a sedative and he handcuffed me because he said I was crazy… When I regained consciousness I had bruises.”
He said a similar incident took place in London shortly afterwards, when Pugachev punched him in the face.
The countess called the police but says they asked her in front of Pugachev if she wanted to file a complaint. She was “so scared” that she told them no.
He has not seen Pugachev since he fled to France following accusations about the legitimacy of his business dealings.
Miss Tolstoy said on the podcast: “(It wasn’t) just verbal abuse, but the abuse of completely deceiving me, taking control of my life and excluding my friends.” She has tried to kidnap children… all kinds of horrible, horrible things.
Pugachev helped finance Putin when he came to power.
He controlled an empire of shipyards, a coal mine and luxury brands, but fell from grace when the Kremlin accused him of enriching himself through Mezhprombank, which he co-founded, before it collapsed in 2010.