The Litvinenko Inquiry

The Litvinenko Inquiry
3.100 Mr Berezovsky provided accommodation for the family. After a few days in a hotel and
then an aparthotel, the family moved into a rented flat in Kensington that was paid
for by Mr Berezovsky. They stayed there for two years. In about 2002 they moved to
the house in Muswell Hill, 140 Osier Crescent, where they were living at the time of
Mr Litvinenko’s death. Marina Litvinenko’s evidence was that this house was owned
by one of Mr Berezovsky’s companies. They did not pay any rent for the house, but
they did pay all the bills. 84
3.101 I also heard evidence that Mr Berezovsky employed Mr Litvinenko to work for him. Both
Marina Litvinenko and Mr Goldfarb said that payments were made to Mr Litvinenko
by way of regular grants from the International Foundation for Civil Liberties, which I
have heard was funded by Mr Berezovsky and operated by Mr Goldfarb. 85 There was
also some evidence that in due course Mr Berezovsky reduced the payments that
he was making to Mr Litvinenko. It has been suggested that this led to a falling out
between the two men. I will return to that issue below.
Medical history
3.102 Mr Litvinenko was, according to the evidence that I have heard, an extremely healthy
man. In contrast to many of his colleagues in the FSB, he did not drink or smoke. He
took regular exercise. Marina Litvinenko said that she had registered the family with
a local medical practice following their move to Muswell Hill in 2002, but she did not
think that Mr Litvinenko had ever been to see the general practitioner (GP) in the
subsequent years, although she did remember one occasion when a private doctor
had come to see him about a lower back problem. 86
3.103 A statement was read to the Inquiry from Dr Rebecca Hatjiosif, who is a GP at that
practice. She produced Mr Litvinenko’s medical notes, which I received in evidence. 87
Dr Hatjiosif stated that Mr Litvinenko had been registered with her practice in May
2003 and gave evidence which confirmed Marina Litvinenko’s recollection that he had
not thereafter had any contact with the surgery. 88
Work and school
3.104 Marina Litvinenko stated that both she and her husband attended language school in
Kensington for the first two years that they were in London. By 2004, her English was
good enough to enable her to secure a job as a dance teacher at a David Lloyd club
in Finchley. She said that she also taught at a language school for Russian children.
3.105 All the evidence I have heard is that Mr Litvinenko’s spoken English was markedly
worse than his wife’s, and that she was being over modest when she told me that
her English was “maybe… a little bit better” than his. 89 When Dean Attew first met
Mr Litvinenko in 2004, he found his English to be “extremely limited”. Mr Attew did
think that Mr Litvinenko’s English had improved considerably by 2006, but he observed
that:
84
Marina Litvinenko 3/114-116
85
INQ017734 (page 17 paragraph 59); Goldfarb 5/102-107
86
Marina Litvinenko 3/122-123
87
INQ015541
88
Hatjiosif 2/99-101
89
Marina Litvinenko 3/121 lines 18-19
30