Warring Tolstoy defiant as she faces eviction

ESTRANGED from her oligarch lover Sergei Pugachev — once known as Putin’s Banker — socialite Alexandra Tolstoy faces an anguished Christmas.

For she and their three children are within weeks of being evicted from their £8.9 million house in Chelsea, West London. ‘We have to be out by the end of January and have nowhere to move to,’ she tells me.

The impending eviction is the consequence of High Court action taken against Pugachev by state creditors in Moscow who accuse him of embezzling more than £655million.

At least Alexandra’s spirit remains unbroken. ‘I’m working as hard as I can to look after my children,’ she says defiantly.