The Litvinenko Inquiry

The Litvinenko Inquiry
Chapter 9: Russian State responsibility – links
between Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitri
Kovtun and the Russian State
9.156 I have referred at paragraphs 9.135 – 136 above to the Yandarbiev case. In that
case, the fact that the three men arrested in Qatar for Mr Yandarbiev’s murder were
serving Russian intelligence officers provided a clear link between the murder and the
Russian State.
9.157 The question that arises here is whether any similar link existed in 2006 between
Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun (whom I have found to have killed Mr Litvinenko) on the
one hand, and the Russian State on the other.
9.158 I can deal with this point fairly shortly.
9.159 There is clear evidence that Mr Lugovoy spent a number of years first in the Ninth
Directorate of the KGB and then in the Federal Protection Service, and that Mr Kovtun
was for a time an officer in the Russian army. It is equally clear, however, that by 2006
neither man was still formally employed by the Russian State – Mr Kovtun having
deserted from the army in 1992 and Mr Lugovoy having left the Federal Protection
Service in 1996.
9.160 That is not, however, a complete answer to the point. I referred in Part 4 above to
the Russian saying that “there is no such thing as a former KGB man”. I have also
referred to speculation that Mr Lugovoy may have been an FSB agent tasked to act
against Mr Berezovsky and his associates (see paragraph 4.147 above).
9.161 That speculation was principally founded on questions that had been raised about
the genuineness of Mr Lugovoy’s conviction and prison sentence in 2002. It will be
recalled that Mr Lugovoy, who until shortly before his conviction had himself been
an employee of Mr Berezovsky, was convicted of attempting to assist Mr Glushkov,
one of Mr Berezovsky’s associates, to escape from prison. Mr Lugovoy subsequently
claimed to have served his 15 month sentence in Lefortovo prison in Moscow. However,
Mr Glushkov, who was detained there throughout the relevant period, said that he had
never seen Mr Lugovoy in the prison. Was Mr Lugovoy already an FSB agent by this
time, and only given a prison sentence in order to improve his credentials with those
he planned to target? Or was he perhaps recruited shortly after being sentenced, and
then secretly released in return for promising his services?
9.162 It has also been suggested that Mr Lugovoy’s thriving business career in the
years before 2006 was suspicious, given his conviction and previous links with
Mr Berezovsky, in particular since many of Mr Lugovoy’s business interests were in
the closely regulated field of security. This, of course, was the period during which
Mr Lugovoy was establishing his businesses in Russia and travelling to London to
forge business relationships there, including with Mr Litvinenko.
9.163 Was the true position that, far from being in disfavour with the Russian authorities
during this period, they were in fact supporting him? Had Mr Lugovoy been tasked
by the FSB to insinuate himself into a position of trust with Mr Berezovsky and
Mr Litvinenko?
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