What if one of the world's richest gold deposits became the bait in one of history's greatest deceptions where not only billions of dollars, but human lives and destinies were at stake?
In 1980, Australian-born Ludmila Melnikoff, of Russian heritage, travelled to Moscow on a scholarship to study Russian. But her love affair with the land of her ancestors took a chilling turn when she found herself imprisoned in a Soviet jail, confronted with an extraordinary proposition from the KGB, and ultimately deported to Australia.
She dared to return ten years later.
Following a personal meeting with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who gave her his blessing to pursue the development of the legendary Sukhoi Log gold deposit in Siberia, valued at [...] billion, Ludmila's company, STAR Mining, entered into a high-stakes partnership with a highly corrupt Russian government.
Among her business partners were Australia's future Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull and influential mining magnate Ian MacNee. Against the backdrop of political upheaval during the Boris Yeltsin era, a dangerous game unfolds, entangling the interests of international financiers, ruthless Russian oligarchs, KGB and the mafia.
But the greatest danger isn't the KGB or the Russian mafia. It's the man she loves.
Behind the scenes of this billion-dollar deal, Ludmila falls in love with a man whose promises of love turn into a world of manipulation, psychological coercive control, and devastating betrayal. While battling powerful men for Russia's gold, she must also fight for her own freedom.
Based on personal diaries and authentic documents, this explosive memoir-a story many sought to bury-lifts the veil on RUSSIA - a hidden world of power, greed and corruption, exposing the devastating human tragedy concealed behind famous names and billion-dollar deals.
A story almost too extraordinary to believe. Yet impossible to forget.