The Litvinenko Inquiry

6.21 – 6.24), in general terms I do not regard ‘negative’ evidence on this type of
vehicle to be of any significance one way or the other.
6.72 On their arrival in the terminal building that morning, Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun were
stopped and questioned by a policeman named Detective Constable (DC) Scott, who
gave oral evidence at the Inquiry.
6.73 DC Scott explained that he did not have any prior intelligence relating to either
Mr Lugovoy or Mr Kovtun. He stopped them simply because he thought they might be
of interest. 47 DC Scott’s file contained a photograph of the two men taken when they
were stopped, timed at 11.34am. 48
6.74 DC Scott examined the two men’s travel documentation and asked about the purpose
of their trip to the UK. He said that Mr Kovtun did not appear to be able to speak
English, but that Mr Lugovoy could and answered the questions on behalf of them
both. The men said that they were travelling for business. They gave a name that
DC Scott wrote down as Mr ‘Shadray’, but which must have been a reference to
Dr Shadrin. They also gave a phone number which DC Scott called – it was the offices
at 58 Grosvenor Street of Dr Shadrin’s two companies, Continental Petroleum Limited
and ECO3 Capital Limited. DC Scott was told by someone there that Mr Lugovoy and
Mr Kovtun were visiting ECO3 Capital.
6.75 It appeared from his evidence that DC Scott was uneasy about Mr Lugovoy and
Mr Kovtun. He explained that the two men:
“were very evasive as to why they were coming to the UK… as I asked them
questions, they weren’t coming out with the answers that I wanted to hear or
expected to hear. They were giving me very, very short answers, so there was no
information in those answers.” 49
6.76 Ultimately, however, once he had telephoned Dr Shadrin’s offices and completed his
standard checks, DC Scott considered that he had no power to hold the two men any
longer and therefore let them proceed.
6.77 DC Scott estimated that the two men left him at about 11.50am. 50 It seems likely
that they in fact left him a few minutes earlier, since the telephone schedule records
Mr Lugovoy making calls on his mobile phone to Dr Shadrin and then to Mr Litvinenko
at 11.45am and 11.46am respectively. 51
6.78 As we shall see, later on the same day Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun met Mr Litvinenko
and together attended a meeting with Mr Reilly. It seems reasonable to assume that
Mr Lugovoy’s brief call to Mr Litvinenko at 11.46 that morning was about that meeting,
particularly since the records show that Mr Litvinenko called Mr Reilly a few minutes
later. 52
6.79 The meeting with Mr Reilly was to take place at 3.00pm. Prior to that, Mr Lugovoy
and Mr Kovtun travelled into London and booked in at their hotel, the Best Western in
Shaftesbury Avenue.
47
Scott 9/39
48
INQ013787 (page 4)
49
Scott 9/43-44
50
Scott 9/47
51
INQ017809 (page 58)
52
Reilly 10/83
Part 6 | Chapters 1 to 8 | The polonium trail – events in October and November 2006
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