The Litvinenko Inquiry

Part 6 | Chapters 1 to 8 | The polonium trail – events in October and November 2006
2006, Mr Lugovoy stated, “On 1 November 2006, Mr Litvinenko called me and offered
to meet”. 255 When he subsequently gave an account of that day to Bruce Burgess
at the time of the polygraph test, Mr Lugovoy made the same point in slightly more
colourful terms:
“On the day of the football match I received a call from Litvinenko who insistently
asked me to meet him. I said I did not have time, let’s meet say tomorrow. He said
No, no, we must meet today.” 256
6.277 Mr Kovtun gave a very similar account in his statement of 2 June 2015: 257
“I remember that on that day, with the sense of urgency typical of him, Litvinenko
proactively telephoned Lugovoy 5-8 times on a mobile telephone saying that he
was not far away from the hotel and asking if he could come to see us. Lugovoy’s
reply to him was that there would be hardly any time to talk because he was taking
his family to a football match. In other words, it was up to Litvinenko whether he
came or not. During the telephone conversations Lugovoy and I were in Shadrin’s
office.”
6.278 Mr Litvinenko gave a very different account when he was interviewed by Detective
Inspector (DI) Hyatt in his hospital bed.
6.279 Mr Litvinenko said that the two men had planned to meet on 2 November, but that on
1 November Mr Lugovoy, “called me in the morning and said he had already arrived
and he would like to meet for a short time on the 1 st ”. He said that they had then
arranged to meet at about 5.00 that afternoon at the Millennium Hotel, but that later in
the day they had spoken again and the meeting had been brought forward – on that
occasion Mr Lugovoy had said, “come quicker, I am waiting for you”. 258
6.280 The telephone schedule has in fact made it possible to resolve the differences between
these rival accounts. 259 Put shortly, the schedule shows that the differences between
the accounts fall to be resolved in favour of Mr Litvinenko’s version of events. The
following points emerge:
a. The very first call between Mr Lugovoy and Mr Litvinenko following Mr Lugovoy’s
arrival in London was made by Mr Lugovoy shortly after 9.00 on the evening of
31 October. The call lasted some six minutes
b. The next communication between the two was another call made by Mr Lugovoy
to Mr Litvinenko, this time at 11.41am the next morning. This was the call made
a few minutes after Mr Kovtun’s call to C2. It is consistent with Mr Litvinenko’s
recollection of Mr Lugovoy calling him on the morning of 1 November
c. The fact that the first two calls between the two men during this trip were made
from Mr Lugovoy to Mr Litvinenko is strongly inconsistent with the accounts given
by Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun
255
INQ002058
256
INQ017779 (page 6)
257
INQ021208 (page 5)
258
The relevant extracts from Mr Litvinenko’s interview transcripts are discussed at Mascall 16/60-62;
16/78-82
259
INQ020044 (pages 3-5)
165