![]() ![]() If anything, they saw themselves as representatives of the new, free, and modern Russia. Most of the men in this room would have bristled at the designation. According to the popular notion, over the course of the past decade, as the former Soviet nation had lurched into capitalism through a complex, often shadowy process of privatization, this class-the Oligarchs-had accumulated insane riches, and they had used this wealth to imbed and twist themselves, like strangling vines, into the ruling mechanisms of the nation’s government, economy, and culture. Within the Russian media, they had garnered the label Oligarchs-a term that was usually derogatory, defining them as a class apart and above. Among them, they represented the largest-and fastest-accumulation of wealth in modern history. To describe them as powerful businessmen-or even billionaires-would have been a laughable understatement. Under the best of circumstances, these men were not accustomed to waiting. And the longer the men were forced to wait for whatever was going to happen next, the more ominous the setting seemed. None of the men looked carefully into the shadows that played across the aging walls, darkening the corners of the vast, high-ceilinged room.Įven though this house had fallen into disuse a generation ago-and was now more museum than functioning dacha-the meeting’s address had meaning far beyond the invitation itself. Every soul knew what this place was: whose house this had once been, and what had supposedly taken place here. The invitation that had been delivered by official courier to each of them in the preceding weeks had been met by everything from incredulous laughter to expressions of suspicion. The setting of the meeting was not lost on any of the men. The men in this room had traveled back in time more than fifty years the minute they had been ushered out of their chauffeured limousines-now parked in glistening rows behind the double fences-and led through the dacha’s front door. Though, to be fair, this aging, stone house tucked in the middle of the dark woods, surrounded by a pair of chain-link fences topped by barbed wire, was a symbol of a much different Moscow than the rapidly growing metropolis beyond the wire. Even though the shades had been drawn back from the trio of windows pocking the long plaster walls of the cavernous dining room, it was impossible to tell how deep into the afternoon the day had drifted the dense forest that surrounded the isolated, two-story compound cast deep shadows across the reinforced glass panes, shifting whatever remained of the bright summer light toward an ominous, gun-metal gray.įor the eighteen middle-aged men in dark suits shifting uncomfortably in their seats as they waited in that palpable silence around an oversize dining room table, it was hard to believe that they were still technically within Moscow’s city limits. THE SILENCE WAS EXCRUCIATING, the minutes ticking by thick and heavy, time itself gorging on the tension in the humid air. ExcerptĬhapter One CHAPTER ONE July 2000, Kuntsevo Dacha, Fili District With unprecedented, exclusive first-person sourcing, Mezrich takes us inside a world of unimaginable wealth, power, and corruption to uncover this exciting story, a true-life thriller epic for our time-“ Wolf Hall on the Moskva” ( Bookpage). As Abramovich prospered, Berezovsky was found dead in a luxurious London town house, declared a suicide. ![]() Dead bodies trailed Berezovsky as he escaped to London, where an associate died painfully of Polonium poisoning, creating an international furor. ![]() With Berezovsky serving as the younger entrepreneur’s krysha-literally, his roof, his protector-they battled their way through the “Wild East” of Russia until their relationship soured when Berezovsky attacked President Vladimir Putin in the media. Meet two larger-than-life Russians: former mathematician Boris Berezovsky, who moved into more lucrative ventures as well as politics, becoming known as the Godfather of the Kremlin and Roman Abramovich, a dashing young entrepreneur who built one of Russia’s largest oil companies from the ground up.Īfter a chance meeting on a yacht in the Caribbean, the men became locked in a complex partnership, surfing the waves of privatization after the fall of the Soviet regime and amassing mega fortunes while also taking the reins of power in Russia. The New York Times bestselling author of Bringing Down the House and The Accidental Billionaires tells his most incredible story yet: A true drama of obscene wealth, crime, rivalry, and betrayal from deep inside the world of billionaire Russian oligarchs that Booklist called “one more example of just how talented a storyteller is.” ![]()
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