Russian who beat Abramovich to buy home

A Russian oil baron has become the latest resident of London's "Billionaires' Row".

He bought the house next to Kensington Palace after a bidding war against some of the world's richest men.

Mr Blavatnik beat his fellow Russian, Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, to secure the Victorian property which has 10 bedrooms, nine bathrooms, four reception rooms and staff accommodation.

During the last five years the house, designed by James Knowles in 1854, has been renovated to combine period detail in classic French salon fashion with state-of-the-art technology.

The Crown Estate, which owns the freehold of the entire road, repaired, restored and refurbished the building to the highest standards, although its new owner is expected to spend millions more adapting it to his personal taste.

Unlike his competitor for 15a Kensington Palace Gardens - once an annexe of the Soviet Embassy - Mr Blavatnik is not a typical Moscow multimillionaire. He has US citizenship and is an example of the American dream.

Born in Russia, he arrived in New York in 1978, a penniless Soviet emigré ¦leeing the persecution of the Brezhnev era to settle in the backwater state of Ohio. He westernised his first name, Leonid, and earned a

masters degree in computer science at Columbia. Mr Blavatnik also holds an MBA from Harvard and has an American wife and family.

He dabbled in property in New York but when the wheels came off in the Soviet Union, he sensed a new land of opportunity and went into business with Viktor Vekselberg, a friend from student days in Moscow. Mr Blavatnik saw the new Russia as his personal Klondike and has built a fortune estimated at up to $3 billion.

America is his home, but the London base will be a convenient stop on his frequent trips to Russia. Bordered by a 30ft wall, the house is guarded 24 hours a day by armed officers and security guards.

It has computer-controlled airconditioning, a lift, remotecontrolled gates, garaging for eight cars and an industrialstyle kitchen.

A swimming pool and gymnasium with steam and therapy rooms have been added in the guise of a traditional orangery.

Kensington Palace Gardens, laid out in 1843, is lined with buildings by the most famous architects of the age, including Decimus Burton and British Museum designer Sydney Smirke.

Kensington, Mayfair and Belgravia are all areas popular with the wealthy Russians involved in the London property market.

The best- known is Abramovich, who lives on a 450-acre estate in Petworth, West Sussex and has a £28million house in Eaton Square. Boris Beresovsky, who amassed the biggest fortune of the Nineties, lives in Stanley House, a Georgian building inside the £250 million King's Chelsea scheme.