Countess ex-lover of man dubbed 'Putin's banker' claims he attacked her during years of 'horrific' abuse - then 'sedated and handcuffed' her when she tried to go to police: 'He went absolutely mental'

The former partner of a Russian oligarch dubbed 'Putin's banker' claims he attacked her – then 'sedated and handcuffed' her when she tried to tell police.

Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, 50, said billionaire Sergei Pugachev subjected her to years of 'horrific' physical and emotional abuse before he was forced into exile in 2015.

In an emotional interview, the Anglo-Russian aristocrat accused him of repeatedly hitting her, drugging her, isolating her from her friends and even trying to abduct their children.

Countess Tolstoy, a travel writer who also runs a horse-riding holiday business, met Pugachev in 2008.

They went on to have three children – but Miss Tolstoy says her ex-partner has refused to pay a penny to support their sons, Alexei and Ivan, and daughter Maria over the past five years.

Countess Alexandra Tolstoy with her former partner, billionaire oligarch Sergei Pugachev on holiday in 2013, two years before he was forced into exile

Pugachev earned the nickname 'Putin's Banker' because of his close ties with the Russian president in the early 2000s (Putin and Pugachev pictured in 2000)

Countess Tolstoy in London in 2016. She claims Pugachev would go 'absolutely mental, screaming at me, just the most appalling abuse'

Sergei Pugachev pictured in Paris in 2015 after he fled to France following allegations around the legitimacy of his business ventures

Countess Alexandra Tolstoy pictured at her Oxfordshire home in 2021. She claims Pugachev has had her family followed whilst in exile in France

She also alleges that Pugachev, 61 – who earned his 'Putin's banker' nickname over his close ties to the Russian president in the early 2000s – has had her family followed, even though he now lives in France after his UK assets were frozen.

Detailing the daily abuse she claims to have faced, the Dorset-born adventurer and broadcaster told Rachel Johnson’s Difficult Women podcast: 'He went absolutely mental. Screaming at me, just the most appalling abuse…

'There was a lot of testing – how far can I go, what can I do? And once I was pregnant he knew there was not really any going back.'

She added: 'I think the worst episode ever, we were in Moscow, and I went out with a girlfriend to dinner and when I came back… he flew out of his room, ripped off my dress, and attacked me physically.'

She said she was 'terrified' and ran to a police station: 'I said, 'Look, I've just been attacked', and they [said they] knew exactly who Sergei was and they were not going to help me.'

Miss Tolstoy, who is distantly related to War and Peace author Leo Tolstoy, says Pugachev had her sedated after the incident.

'He then got a psychiatrist to come and inject me with a sedative and handcuff me because he said that I was mad… When I came round I had bruises.'

She said a similar incident took place in London shortly after, with Pugachev punching her in the face. 

The countess rang the police but says they asked her in front of Pugachev if she wanted to make a complaint. She was 'so frightened' she told them she did not.

She hasn't seen Pugachev since he fled to France following allegations surrounding the legitimacy of his business ventures.

Miss Tolstoy told the podcast: '(It wasn't) just verbal abuse but the abuse of completely gaslighting, taking over control of my life, cutting out my friends. He's tried to abduct the children… all sorts of horrible, awful things.'

Pugachev helped to finance Putin as he came to power.

He controlled an empire of shipyards, a coal mine and luxury brands, but fell from grace when he was accused by the Kremlin of enriching himself through Mezhprombank, which he co-founded, before it collapsed in 2010.