The Litvinenko Inquiry

Part 9 | Chapters 1 to 12 | Who directed the killing?
observers” believed Ms Politkovskaya’s death to have been “a political assassination”,
with suspicion falling on either President Putin or President Kadyrov of Chechnya. 47
9.132 Sergei Yushenkov was shot dead in a street in Moscow in April 2003. He was a
member of the Russian Parliament who had been one of the co-founders of the
oppositionist Liberal Russia party with Boris Berezovsky in 2002. He was also a
prominent member of the commission that had been established to investigate the
1999 apartment bombings. 48 Marina Litvinenko recalled that Mr Yushenkov had met
Mr Litvinenko in London in 2002 or 2003. 49
9.133 Another of the founders of the Liberal Russia party was Vladimir Golovlev. He was
shot and killed in Moscow in 2002. Mr Goldfarb said that his death, “appear[ed] to
have been a political assassination”. 50
9.134 Professor Service noted that, “extrajudicial killings outside the frontiers of the Russian
Federation have sometimes been attributed to Russian security forces.” 51
9.135 The best known example of political assassination conducted by Russia outside its
borders during this period is the February 2004 killing of the Chechen Vice President
Zelinkhan Yandarbiev. He was blown up as he left a mosque with his son. Professor
Service stated that Mr Yandarbiev was “a strong critic of the Putin administration”, 52
who had been a leader of the Chechen insurgency until going abroad in 1999. He
said that, prior to his death, Mr Yandarbiev had been conducting his anti-Moscow
activities in Qatar, where he was free from the risk of extradition to Russia, and that
he had been held responsible by the Russian authorities for the Moscow theatre siege
in October 2002. As to Russia’s responsibility for Mr Yandarbiev’s death, Professor
Service stated: 53
“Three agents of Russian military intelligence were arrested in Doha and accused
of planting the bomb that killed Yandarbiev. Igor Ivanov, Secretary of the Security
Council, was sent to put pressure on the Qatari administration. Two Qatari citizens
were taken into custody at Moscow’s Sheremetevo airport; they were said to be
suspected of connections with the Chechen insurgents. Putin wished to secure
the release of the Russian agents. He phoned the Emir himself about the matter.
One of the agents was allowed back to Russia. Two remained in custody until
December 2004, when they were flown to Moscow to serve out their sentences
in Russian prisons. The Qatari detainees were liberated as part of the diplomatic
bargain.”
9.136 A few months after Mr Yandarbiev’s death, in September 2004, there was an apparent
attempt to poison Viktor Yuschenko, the anti-Moscow candidate in Presidential
elections taking place in Ukraine. Professor Service recorded that Mr Yuschenko’s
poisoning was attributed to Russian security forces. 54
9.137 Nor was this the only incident during this period of the suspected poisoning of
opponents of President Putin by Russian agents.
47
INQ019146 (page 24 paragraph 74)
48
Goldfarb 5/115; 5/121-123
49
Marina Litvinenko 3/141-142
50
Goldfarb 26/71
51
INQ019146 (page 19 paragraph 61)
52
INQ019146 (page 20 paragraph 62)
53
INQ019146 (page 20 paragraph 63)
54
INQ019146 (page 19 paragraph 61)
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