The Litvinenko Inquiry

evening. 304 I also heard evidence from Vladimir Voronkov, who was Mr Berezovsky’s
office manager. He said that it was quite normal for Mr Litvinenko to pop into the
building, and he recalled seeing him there, he said at about 4.00 on the afternoon of
1 November 2006. 305
6.326 Mr Litvinenko was in telephone contact with Mr Zakayev at around this time.
Mr Zakayev had driven into central London and Mr Litvinenko was arranging to get
a lift home with him. Mr Zakayev gave oral evidence to the Inquiry. He said that
Mr Litvinenko had telephoned him earlier in the day and that later he had picked him
up by arrangement near Mr Berezovsky’s offices. He, too, recalled that Mr Litvinenko
had been talking about the papers he had received from Mr Scaramella and their
possible connection to the Politkovskaya case. His evidence was that he had another
friend, named Yaragi Abdul, who was already in the front passenger seat of the car.
He said that when Mr Litvinenko got in he sat in the middle of the rear seats and
that as they drove he leaned forward to talk to them, leaning on the back of the front
seats. According to Mr Zakayev the drive back to north London was uneventful and
he dropped Mr Litvinenko off in Osier Crescent. 306
6.327 Mr Abdul also gave oral evidence, which was consistent with that of Mr Zakayev. 307
6.328 1 November was the anniversary of Mr and Mrs Litvinenko’s arrival in this country.
I have described in Part 3 above the evidence that Mrs Litvinenko cooked a special
meal that evening, that Mr Litvinenko subsequently fell ill, and of all that followed.
6.329 When Mr Zakayev’s car was tested for radiation, secondary contamination was found
predominantly on the rear passenger seat and on the backs of the two front seats. 308
6.330 Mr Litvinenko’s house in Osier Crescent was also tested. Unsurprisingly, given that
Mr Litvinenko had on any view ingested polonium, secondary contamination was found
throughout the property. There are two points about the findings that are of particular
interest. First, there was no primary contamination found anywhere in the house.
Second, in the main the secondary contamination readings were low. A1 agreed
that these readings reflected, “pretty chronic low level contamination throughout the
house, consistent with secondary transfer by multiple individuals over time.” 309 There
was a single exception to this pattern. Very high readings were taken from the sleeve
of the blue denim jacket that Mr Litvinenko had been wearing on 1 November. 310 A1
stated that, in simple terms, the readings indicated that the sleeve had been in an
area of primary contamination. She said: “Most certainly the cuff of that sleeve had
actually been in contact with quite a considerable level of contamination, and from its
position, et cetera, it would be transferred contamination”. 311
Lugovoy and Kovtun after the Pine Bar
6.331 DI Mascall gave evidence about the movements of Mr Lugovoy and his party during
the remainder of their stay in London. This can be dealt with fairly shortly.
304
Berezovsky 25/15-16
305
Voronkov 16/187-202
306
Zakayev 26/148-151
307
Abdul 17/98-105
308
Mascall 17/58-60
309
A1 20/83
310
Mascall 17/60-65
311
A1 20/84-85
Part 6 | Chapters 1 to 8 | The polonium trail – events in October and November 2006
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