Netflix is looking at the relationship of Sergei Pugachev and his wife Countess Alexandra Tolstoy.
First shown on BBC Two, the documentary is now available on Netflix, and gives details on their marriage and fallout.
So, who exactly is Countess Alexandra Tolstoy?
Here’s everything you need to know, including what you can expect from the doc.
Who is Countess Alexandra Tolstoy?
Countess Alexandra is a British equine adventurer, broadcaster, socialite, businesswoman and aristocrat.
She comes from a long line of Russian nobility and is the daughter of Count Nikolai Tolstoy and Georgina Brown. She is the eldest of Anglo-Russian historian and writer Nikolai Tolstoy’s four children.
The Countess grew up in Oxfordshire before attending Edinburgh University to study Philosophy.
She was married to billionaire financier Pugachev – who was once dubbed Vladimir Putin’s ‘banker’ – and they share three children together. The pair met while the Countess was teaching English in Moscow.
In 2016, after the family moved to the UK, Pugachev was accused of embezzling a fortune out of his finance house Mezhprombank. State creditors in Moscow pursued him in the British courts. He then fell out with Putin and fled the country to France – after which he was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison by a High Court judge in 2016 after being found guilty of contempt.
Pugachev denied that he had stolen any money and no ruling was made on the allegations of embezzled cash. His lawyer also said that there has been no court decision establishing financial wrongdoing by him.
In 2017, Tolstoy described Pugachev as controlling, while in 2018, she said in an interview that she was a single mother and stated that Pugachev had not supported her or the children financially for three years.
On 14th March 2022, the 48-year-old Countess appeared on ITV’s Lorraine, where she called both President of Russia Vladimir Putin and her ex-husband “narcissists”, adding that they’re capable of “self-destructive things”.
What is the Netflix documentary The Countess & The Russian Billionaire about?
According to Netflix’s synopsis, the documentary “follows the love story of Countess Alexandra Tolstoy and oligarch Sergei Pugachev and the scandal that led to their fallout”.
The film is 59 mins long and is narrated by Doon Mackichan.
The Countess & The Russian Billionaire is available to stream on Netflix. If you’re looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide. Check out our Documentaries hub for all the latest news.
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