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Ex-partner of Russian oligarch close to Putin said life in Russia was like ‘The Godfather’ and there was a ‘lack of normal human morals’
Rebecca Cohen – March 18, 2022
- The ex-partner of Putin’s former banker said living in Russia was like “The Godfather.”
- “This crazy insane wealth, and also a complete lack of sort of normal, human morals,” Alexandra Tolstoy said.
- While she was together with Sergei Pugachev, she got a front-row look at the inner-workings of Putin’s government.
Alexandra Tolstoy, the former partner of Russian oligarch Sergei Pugachev, said living in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s world was like “The Godfather.”
“It was sort of like everything you probably imagine, as someone earlier said, like ‘The Godfather,'” Tolstoy told Erin Burnett on CNN Thursday.
“This crazy insane wealth, and also a complete lack of sort of normal, human morals,” Tolstoy said of living in Putin’s Russia for eight years with Pugachev.
She added that Putin’s top aides all “hate each other” and that their government is “ruthless.”
Tolstoy and Pugachev were together for eight years before Pugachev’s falling out with Putin. The pair share three children and their relationship is the subject of the BBC documentary “The Countess and the Russian Billionaire.”
Pugachev was once known as “Putin’s banker,” but left the Kremlin in 2011, according to The Guardian.
He once owned two shipyards, the world’s largest mine, and significant real estate across Russia, but he claims it was all taken from him. The Kremlin said Pugachev is a criminal, claiming he stole hundreds of millions of dollars from loans given to Russia’s central bank in 2008, The Guardian reported.