The Litvinenko Inquiry

The Litvinenko Inquiry
was in the club that evening. 128 The evidence was that the two men had returned to
the Parkes Hotel at about 3.00am. 129 DI Mascall subsequently confirmed that he had
found no evidence that Mr Litvinenko had ever been to Hey Jo nightclub. 130
6.140 The Golden Dragon restaurant, Cafe Boheme and Hey Jo nightclub were all tested
for alpha radiation. No contamination was found at the Golden Dragon or at Cafe
Boheme. Secondary contamination was, however, found at Hey Jo nightclub. 131
6.141 There is one further feature of the evidence about what took place that evening that
I must address.
6.142 In the witness statement dated 2 June 2015 that Mr Kovtun provided to the Inquiry, he
gave a description of an event that took place during the meal at the Golden Dragon
on the evening of 17 October 2006. The account that he gave was as follows:
“In the restaurant Litvinenko talked about the scoundrel Y. Felshtinsky, relating
how he had robbed him, unfairly dividing the fee for the book ‘Blowing up Russia’,
and how it was easy to obtain political asylum in Great Britain through A. Goldfarb,
whom he called a ‘CIA agent’. Litvinenko also suggested identifying wealthy citizens
in Russia with property in Spain and giving him their details. Using his connections
within the Spanish police, he would create problems for them there, and we would
then make contact with them and solve those problems for a significant material
reward.
Somehow or other, the subsequent conversation turned to Chechens, and
Litvinenko started boasting about his friendship with Sakayev and his brothers,
hinting at his indirect involvement in the events in Nalchik where over 70 Russian
police officers were killed in an attack on the town by Islamic militants. I was fed
up with listening to his harangue and gladly complied with Lugovoy’s request to
leave them. I went outside and walked about not far from the Chinese restaurant
for about 30 minutes.”
6.143 I draw attention to this section of Mr Kovtun’s statement because it is seriously at
odds with other accounts that both he and Mr Lugovoy have previously given.
6.144 Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun gave a joint press conference in Moscow on 31 May
2007 – less than a year after Mr Litvinenko’s death. During the course of the press
conference, both of them gave accounts of conversations that they said had taken
place on 16/17 October between Mr Litvinenko and Mr Kovtun about Boris Berezovsky.
6.145 Mr Kovtun said that Mr Litvinenko had talked to him on the evening of 16 October
whilst they were waiting for a cab. He said that Mr Litvinenko had complained to him
about Mr Berezovsky cutting his salary. He said that Mr Litvinenko claimed that it had
been he and MI6 who had obtained asylum for Mr Berezovsky. 132
6.146 Earlier in the same press conference, Mr Lugovoy had given an account of a
conversation which he said had taken place between Mr Litvinenko and Mr Kovtun at
128
INQ006360; INQ006361; INQ006362; INQ006363
129
Mascall 11/137
130
Mascall 29/75
131
INQ017934 (pages 87-93)
132
INQ001886 (page 17)
138