The Litvinenko Inquiry

Part 3 | Chapters 1 to 5 | Alexander Litvinenko
found Mr Berezovsky to be a highly unreliable witness in the proceedings that he
brought against Mr Roman Abramovich in the High Court in London. 13 In fact (and in
contrast to the Abramovich case), a large proportion of Mr Berezovsky’s account has
been either uncontentious or well supported by the evidence of others. In reaching my
conclusion on the question of Mr Berezovsky’s alleged involvement in Mr Litvinenko’s
death (see Part 9), I have been able to rely on a considerably wider array of evidence
than Mr Berezovsky’s own (untested) denial.
3.24 Returning to Moscow in 1994, the account that Mr Berezovsky gave of his first
meetings with Mr Litvinenko was in the following terms:
“I first met Alexander Litvinenko, also known as Sasha Litvinenko, in 1994 when he
was an FSB officer for the Russian security services (KGB). He came to my offices
as he had orders to look into the workings of my company. It was not to investigate
me personally, but an investigation into how my business was operating. This
was because at the time the FSB were trying to establish how Russia was being
transformed.
In June 1994 I was subject to a terror attack against me in Moscow. It was a car
bomb. When I left my office the car exploded. My driver was killed, my bodyguard
and I were both injured and I spent two weeks in hospital in Switzerland. This
incident resulted in Litvinenko and I becoming close friends.” 14
3.25 Marina Litvinenko had only known Mr Litvinenko for a year in June 1994, but in her
oral evidence she recalled that he had been involved in investigating the assassination
attempt against Mr Berezovsky, which she described as having been front page news
at the time. 15 She also stated that Mr Litvinenko had been ordered at that time to (as
she put it in her witness statement) “maintain regular contact” with Mr Berezovsky. 16
The precise scope and purpose of this duty was not clear – Marina Litvinenko did not
think, for example, that he was acting as a bodyguard. It may be that this was simply
a continuation of the attempts by the FSB (or FSK as it was at this time) to keep tabs
on Mr Berezovsky, which he described in the first of the two paragraphs quoted from
his statement above.
3.26 Marina Litvinenko recalled that at that time Mr Litvinenko had a number of meetings
with Mr Berezovsky, and that he accompanied Mr Berezovsky on a trip to Switzerland
in 1995. Her evidence was that Mr Litvinenko travelled on that occasion on a diplomatic
passport provided by the FSB; so it would appear that the trip had the blessing of his
superiors.
3.27 Putting the matter shortly, the evidence seems to support Mr Berezovsky’s assertion
that the assassination attempt in June 1994 was the start of the process by which he
and Mr Litvinenko became close friends.
3.28 A second important incident in the development of the relationship between the two
men took place in March 1995, following the murder in Moscow of a man named
Vlad Listyev. Mr Listyev was at that time the most popular TV presenter in Russia; he
was also the head of the independent television station ORT, which was controlled
by Mr Berezovsky. Marina Litvinenko’s account of this episode was that police came
13
Berezovsky v Abramovich [2012] EWHC 2463 (Comm), paragraphs 97-112
14
Berezovsky 25/6-7
15
Marina Litvinenko 3/35-36
16
INQ017734 (page 3 paragraph 9)
17