The Litvinenko Inquiry

Chapter 6: Events in London 25-28 October
6.152 A week after he and Mr Kovtun had flown back to Moscow, Mr Lugovoy returned to
London. He arrived on an evening flight on Wednesday 25 October 2006. On this
occasion, he was not accompanied by Mr Kovtun. In further contrast to the earlier
trip, the evidence is that Mr Lugovoy’s travel on this occasion was hastily arranged.
Whereas the arrangements for the first trip (including, it appears, obtaining a visa for
Mr Kovtun) had been several weeks in the planning, the evidence was that on this
occasion Mr Lugovoy’s flight and hotel bookings had been made only the day before
he travelled, on Tuesday 24 October 2006. 140
6.153 In the interim, Mr Litvinenko had made his speech at the Frontline Club about
Anna Politkovskaya’s death, publicly attributing the blame for her murder to
President Putin. That event had taken place on the evening of Thursday 19 October.
6.154 DI Mascall gave evidence that Mr Lugovoy flew into Heathrow on the evening of
25 October on British Airways flight BA875. The flight landed at Heathrow at 10.54pm
that evening. The aircraft that made the flight that day was G-BNWX. 141 Secondary
contamination was subsequently discovered on that aircraft – see further below at
paragraphs 6.184 – 6.186.
6.155 Mr Lugovoy travelled into central London and booked into the Sheraton Hotel, where
he was given room 848. 142
6.156 In a witness statement that he provided in the Terluk litigation, Mr Lugovoy described
this trip as, “another business trip where I was due to meet with some contacts in
London as regards some proposed work”. 143
Meeting with Badri Patarkatsishvili
6.157 There is certainly evidence that Mr Lugovoy met with other business contacts at this
time. One of those contacts was Badri Patarkatsishvili.
6.158 Mr Patarkatsishvili was a wealthy Georgian businessman who was a close friend and
business partner of Boris Berezovsky. There is evidence that Mr Lugovoy travelled to
see Mr Patarkatsishvili at his house in Surrey on 26 October 2006. Mr Patarkatsishvili
provided witness statements to the police following Mr Litvinenko’s death, but he
himself died in 2008. Relevant sections of his statements were therefore read.
6.159 Mr Patarkatsishvili had told the police that he had known Mr Lugovoy since about 1993,
when the latter had been head of security at ORT, the Russian television channel that
Mr Patarkatsishvili and Mr Berezovsky had run together. More recently, Mr Lugovoy
had organised Mr Patarkatsishvili’s security in Georgia. Mr Patarkatsishvili told the
police that Mr Lugovoy visited him in Georgia every two months. Mr Patarkatsishvili
recalled a business meeting at his house in Surrey during October 2006. He said that,
in addition to himself and Mr Lugovoy, the meeting had been attended by Vladimir
Voronoff and also a man named Marti Pompadour. He said that the purpose of the
meeting was to discuss outdoor advertising in Moscow. 144 There is no reason to think
that this was anything other than a genuine business meeting.
140
Mascall 12/4-5; 12/9
141
Mascall 12/10-12
142
Mascall 12/14-16
143
INQ001788 (page 22)
144
Patarkatsishvili 12/48-59
Part 6 | Chapters 1 to 8 | The polonium trail – events in October and November 2006
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