Obituary: Nikki Romanov

Mr Romanov served two terms as managing director of the Russian Wood Agency with the most recent being in the mid 1990s.

He worked for Exportles, which in those days was responsible for all the sales of Russian forest products to the UK and he first came to the UK during a period of political tension between Russia and the UK. At one stage when tit-for-tat expulsions were taking place the RWA had to lose some of its Russian staff when a similar number of British staff were removed from Russia.

In those days travel in the UK was restricted and every journey outside London over 25 miles needed Home Office permission with the route checked before. This did lead to some interesting exchanges between Special Branch and Mr Romanov, who objected to having his meals interrupted by the latter insisting on checking his papers.

Mr Romanov was seen by the UK trade as a very fair man to deal with and over the years he made a number of very good friends and wherever he could he promoted trade between Russia and the UK. He was awarded the Order of Friendship by the Russian government for his work in this area.

On retirement Mr Romanov joined Churchill & Sim’s Moscow office as a consultant and he was actively working in the timber trade up to the time of his death.