the equally talented Michard-Pellissier.

Alexis de Redé had introduced me to Maître Michard-Pellissier. He was a close friend of the Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas, and had been the lawyer for Henri Charrière, of Papillon fame. I had used him on some earlier business deals, and he seemed ideal for the delicate negotiations required to come to an arrangement to define the financial basis with the authorities in the département of the Alpes-Maritimes; there was a lot of work to be done behind the scenes so that the artists could live in comfort in a foreign country.

Maître Michard-Pellissier dealt directly with the préfet for the Alpes-Maritimes. A deal was struck with the Alpes-Maritimes authorities whereby the Stones were allowed to reside and only had to pay a negotiated income tax1825 and had been moved to Siberia where they had a large estate and a comfortable life.

Kissed as a child by Lenin, George had later been involved in helping both Russia and America during the later stages of the Second World War. He explained to me that Russia and Japan did not go to war until the very end, when Stalin, as can be expected, wanted to pick up some profits from being the victor in the war against Germany. George proved to be very useful to Russia and to America via Japan because Russia needed rubber and Japan needed steel, so he entered into a complicated switch arrangement whereby this was provided.

George was of immense help when I travelled to Russia in 1973 to open discussions. The