NEWPORT man Julian Webb felt like one of the Untouchables when he married into one of the most powerful families in Russia.

The 33-year-old's father-in-law is a top lawyer who takes on the Moscow mafia.

Mr Webb, of Malpas, tied the knot with Ilona, 30, in Rostov, a district south of the Russian capital.

His in-laws are both public prosecutors who take on the criminal underworld.

"Ilona's family is very powerful," Mr Webb said. "Her father, Sasha Revina, is a former detective and now a high-ranking public prosecutor whose job involves fighting the mafia.

"Corruption is everywhere in Russia." It took Mr Webb time to get used to his new family's status. "I'm used to seeing the influence her father holds in the cities but it was weird at first," he said.

"Police officers salute him in the street, he can park his car anywhere and he's well looked after by the government and protected by police, so he can basically do what he wants."

There were even bodyguards at the April wedding. Mr Webb, who is a project worker with homeless people in Cardiff, said: "The wedding was heaving with other public prosecutors."

Mr Webb's family was made to feel very welcome during their visit. "My family stayed in Russia for one week and they were accompanied by a bodyguard called Sergei the whole time," said Mr Webb.

"Two days after the wedding the district's chief of police laid on a whole day of entertainment for us. We were given a full English breakfast and taken on a yacht for the day, where we enjoyed a banquet with Guinness.

It was brought in because they knew it was my father's favourite drink." Mr Webb said the video of the wedding day showed how he felt. "The video editor had put music to certain sections.

"As the footage shows me kissing a statue of Jesus which was held by my father-in-law, the Godfather theme music starts playing, which made me laugh because it captured how I felt perfectly," he said.

The pair met through a mutual friend at a caf in Rostov in 2002, where Mr Webb was on holiday.

Mr Webb said: "When I saw Ilona for the first time I knew she was for me. She spoke little English and my Russian was equally bad, so we communicated with dictionaries at first." The couple have now set up home in Newport.