Hi, I'm Courtney Weaver, a foreign correspondent with the Financial Times.

I've spent a long time reporting in Russia,

so last year, what I got an email about a Russian banker living in exile in New York City,

I thought it might just be an interesting story.

But it turned out to be something bigger, something which encapsulated so much about Russia today,

and how we in the West build stories about who's good and who's bad.

And I'm Stefania Palma, a Washington correspondent with the Financial Times.

The banning question is named Sergei Liantiev.

For a long time, Sergei Liantiev was part of Russia's banking elites.

His bank had hundreds of locations all across the country.

He was seen as an innovator.

He was the kind of guy who'd get to talk about Russian banking with a foreign investor

or visiting American president.

But Sergei says his dreams of becoming a Russian Warren Buffett came to an end because of the state.

He says Moscow persecuted him for his connections to opposition leader Alexei Navalny,

and he had to flee the country.

Russia says it went after Sergei because he was responsible for a billion dollar hole in his bank's balance sheet.

They say he took the money and ran.

It seemed like a clear-cut story.

Russia was looking for a reason to cut down Leontyev.

But the more we dug into it, the more questions we had.

On the Russian banker, a new mini-series from the Financial Times,

...