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