The Litvinenko Inquiry
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Part 6 | Chapters 1 to 8 | <strong>The</strong> polonium trail – events in October and November 2006<br />
the Golden Dragon restaurant on the evening of 17 October. Mr Lugovoy said that the<br />
conversation had taken place while he was away from the table. He said as follows: 133<br />
“In this connection I would like to tell you what Sasha had told Dmitry Kovtun not<br />
long before his death, when we met together in October of last year. During our<br />
dinner at one of the Chinatown restaurants in London, <strong>Litvinenko</strong>, enlarging on the<br />
subject of ways to make money, touched upon the resumed negotiations between<br />
Russia and the UK regarding Berezovsky’s extradition. Lamenting the fact that<br />
Berezovsky did not appreciate the services rendered to him by <strong>Litvinenko</strong>, who<br />
allegedly saved his life more than once, <strong>Litvinenko</strong> told Kovtun, that he had the<br />
most important materials of compromising nature, regarding the illegal activity of<br />
Berezovsky on the UK territory. If any part of the documents pertaining to the<br />
circumstances of his obtaining the refugee status were to be made public, then he<br />
(Berezovsky) would have huge problems. <strong>Litvinenko</strong> hinted to Dima, that especially<br />
now, when Russia raised an issue with the UK of extraditing Berezovsky, it would be<br />
very opportune to let Berezovsky know that such materials exist, and to put a value<br />
of several million dollars on them. Still being financially dependent on Berezovsky<br />
– Berezovsky was paying his son’s tuition fees and the family’s accommodation<br />
in London, <strong>Litvinenko</strong> – <strong>Litvinenko</strong> asked Kovtun to find a reliable person, whom<br />
he would introduce to Berezovsky, which person would be able to familiarise<br />
Berezovsky with the materials, compromising him. <strong>Litvinenko</strong> was absolutely sure<br />
of the success of this enterprise, referring to the explosive nature and authenticity<br />
of the compromising materials he possessed. Since the conversation took place<br />
when I left the table, <strong>Litvinenko</strong> asked Kovtun to keep that conversation between<br />
them, fearing that I, as a person who could contact Berezovsky at any point, would<br />
expose <strong>Litvinenko</strong>’s idea to him.”<br />
6.147 Several years after the press conference, in 2011, Mr Lugovoy provided a lengthy<br />
witness statement in the course of the Terluk libel proceedings. One section of<br />
that statement was devoted to a detailed narrative account of the meetings that<br />
he and Mr Kovtun had had with Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong> in October and November 2006. In<br />
that statement, Mr Lugovoy made no mention at all of anything that Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong><br />
said at the Golden Dragon restaurant – whether in terms of a private discussion<br />
between Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong> and Mr Kovtun concerning Mr Berezovsky (as Mr Lugovoy<br />
had described at the press conference) or in terms of a discussion about Russians in<br />
Spain, as Mr Kovtun now asserts. Nor did he say anything about a discussion between<br />
Mr Kovtun and Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong> on 16 October while they were waiting for a cab. Rather,<br />
Mr Lugovoy gave an account of a conversation between Mr Kovtun and Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong><br />
that had supposedly taken place earlier in the day on 17 October. Paragraph 127 of<br />
this statement read as follows: 134<br />
“We, that is Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong>, Mr Kovtun and I, had a meeting at 18.00 with RISC on<br />
17 October 2007 [sic]. After the meeting at RISC, when we were walking back to<br />
the hotel, Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong> was walking next to Mr Kovtun some distance ahead of<br />
me. I was speaking on my mobile phone. Whilst we were walking I could not hear<br />
what Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong> was saying to Mr Kovtun. However, later that day Mr Kovtun told<br />
me that Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong> resumed his complaint that Mr Berezovsky was not treating<br />
him fairly and that he simply could not survive on the money that Mr Berezovsky<br />
was paying to him. He said that he knew information regarding Mr Berezovsky<br />
that was worth a great deal of money. He said that he needed to find someone<br />
133<br />
INQ001886 (page 6)<br />
134<br />
INQ001788 (page 21)<br />
139