'WE WENT ON THE RUN FROM RUSSIA!'

Now safe in New Zealand, Nick and his family hid in the outback for three years

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It sounds like the plot of a thriller, but Nick Stride and his family's story is all true - and more extraordinary than a Hollywood film.

Nick's troubles began in the late '90s, when the British construction manager started a family in Moscow with his Russian wife Luda.

"I was chosen to work on a special project building a multimillion-dollar winter garden for the deputy prime minister, Igor Shuvalov," Nick, now 55, tells Woman's Day.

"It was very secretive and I was the only westerner." Nick was soon to realise the power held by Igor, who was the right-hand man to President Vladimir Putin, and it slowly dawned on him that those who displeased or betrayed the Russian leaders disappeared. As he gradually became irreplaceable, while also holding sensitive financial information, he felt his life was in danger.

"I was under constant surveillance," says Nick. "They didn't want me to leave and we were scared." After months of secret plotting, Luda and Nick managed to escape Russia in October 2010, fleeing to the furthest country they could think of, Australia, with their children Michael and Anya, then aged 10 and nine.

"I was excited - I thought we were going on a holiday," says Anya, now 23. "I wanted to see kangaroos." After travelling around Western Australia, the family applied for asylum. They settled in a Perth caravan park, with Nick occasionally finding cash-in-hand work while the children attended school.