I’m poor and can’t support my family says ‘Putin's banker’ with £10,000 a week allowance

A Russian tycoon exiled in London — once labelled “Putin’s banker” — has claimed he is now a “poor man” who cannot support his glamorous partner, former BBC TV presenter Alexandra Tolstoy, and their children despite having a £10,000-a-week allowance.

Sergei Pugachev, 52, also dubbed “cashier to the Kremlin”, is fighting a worldwide freeze on his $2 billion assets imposed by a London court at the request of government officials in Moscow.

Pugachev,a former business partner of the Queen’s nephew Viscount Linley, is accused by the Russians of siphoning $1 billion in funds from Mezhprombank, which filed for insolvency in 2010.

He denies any wrongdoing and complained the freeze has left him unable to support Tolstoy, 41, a distant relative of writer Leo Tolstoy, who said last year they are “just surviving” on the £10,000-a-week Pugachev is allowed by the court.

The couple have three young children, own a £12 million house and are reported to employ two housekeepers, three nannies, two drivers and a live-in doctor.

“I can be called a poor man. I do not have money to support my family and my property, and this is more important than paying the lawyers,” Pugachev told a Moscow newspaper.

He said he has borrowed $5 million towards his $10 million legal bill, but was now unable to take more loans and has had to sack his British lawyers.

The Deposit Insurance Agency in Moscow, which is taking the legal action against Pugachev, claims Ms Tolstoy’s statements about their lifestyle belie “his declarations about financial difficulties”.

Last week a Court of Appeal judge in London ruled that Pugachev must disclose further information about trusts he uses to bolster his income.

The court said it was clear he lives in houses owned by the trusts and depends on income from them for day-to-day living costs,andadded: “Sophis-ticated and wily operators should not be able to make themselves immune to the courts’ orders.”

Pugachev claims he is the victim of a “politically motivated” asset grab by figures close to President Putin and says he was forced to flee to London after being warned “he or his family could be physically harmed”.