Chelsea FC owner and billionaire Roman Abramovich did not make it to the party but Andrey Kuzyaev’s secret birthday celebration for his dozen guests continued just the same on Monday evening.
Disappointed tourists found the gates locked to Valletta’s premier view of the Grand Harbour as event executives turned them away. The Upper Barrakka had been booked, for the sole exclusivity of the dozen guests of young Russian oil tycoon Andrey Kuzyaev.
Kuzyaev, 42, is the president of Lukoil Overseas, the international arm of Vagit Alekperov’s Lukoil, Russia’s largest oil company. Alekperov himself is rated by Forbes as the 48th richest person worldwide with USD12.6 billion.
Kuzyaev chartered the 100-metre RM Elegant superyacht for his guests, which was berthed a few days before his birthday party at the Vittoriosa marina. The boat is chartered at the fantastic rate of USD450,000 a week.
On their arrival on Sunday, four Mercedes brought a dozen of his guests to the Casino di Venezia, escorted by 10 security guards.
The casino’s ground floor was reported to have been transformed into a theatre, where dancers from the Moulin Rouge performed for the guests.
Staff claimed a girl group going by the name of American sensation Pussycat Dolls gave an exclusive performance.
On Monday evening, the party moved to the Upper Barrakka where a red carpet welcomed Kuzyaev’s guests. Even the St Angelo bastions were put at Kuzyaev’s disposal, as a laser show beamed across the Harbour wishing the multi-millionaire a happy birthday.
Only one glitch sent the party in disarray at one point, when on Sunday evening a traffic warden threatened to remove some of the illegally parked cars at Vittoriosa.
Kuzyaev was born into a family of civil servants in Perm on October 6. In 1987 he earned an honours degree from the Department of Economics of the Perm University with a major in industrial planning. He started his career as an economist at the Communar machine-building plant. In 1996 he was appointed general director of Lukoil Perm and since 2000 he has headed Lukoil’s international oil production company.