The Berlin Wall has come down, and East meets West. Yeltsin becomes president of a bankrupt state. Desperate for cash, Russia opens its doors to foreign companies, and Australian-born Ludmila is lured to the home of her ancestors to mine Russia's secret jewel in her crown, Sukhoi Log, the world's largest gold reserve. To do this, she seeks the aid of charismatic Australian mining magnate Ian MacNee and Australia's future prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull. The two men share a passion for gold and for Ludmila-but one man is not what he seems.

Supported by diary and business meeting records and company reports, For the Love of Russian Gold is a sweeping exposé of corruption and deceit at the highest echelons of the Russian government in the 1990s, and of tax havens, the mafia, and synthetic drugs. It is also a personal, heart-wrenching story of abuse in the form of coercive control.

Millions of dollars raised by merchant bankers in London, New York, and Australia flow into Siberia as the mining world eagerly watches. The stakes are high, but the question remains: Is the reserve really worth $30 billion? Or is Sukhoi Log Russia's greatest grift?