The Litvinenko Inquiry
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Litvinenko</strong> <strong>Inquiry</strong><br />
that rehearsed the allegations – which he arranged to be shown (with some fanfare,<br />
it would seem) in March 2002 at the Royal United Services Institute in London. 29<br />
Mr Berezovsky commissioned Mr Felshtinsky and Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong> to try to gather further<br />
evidence about what had happened in 1999. In Moscow, Mr Berezovsky encouraged<br />
and supported the establishment of a Commission to conduct a public investigation<br />
into the allegations. I heard that the Commission had about 15 members, including<br />
politicians, lawyers and journalists, as well as the daughter of one of the victims of the<br />
bombings. <strong>The</strong> Commission was founded jointly by a Member of Parliament (MP) and<br />
“old-time Russian dissident” 30 named Sergei Kovalyov and another MP named Sergei<br />
Yushenkov. Another of its members was Yuri Shchekochikhin, a journalist who had<br />
written for Novaya Gazeta about corruption in URPO at the time of Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong>’s<br />
press conference. 31<br />
4.38 <strong>The</strong> evidence shows that Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong> was very much involved in this activity.<br />
I summarise. He helped to promote the film. He undertook further investigations with<br />
Mr Felshtinsky, including travelling with him to Georgia to try to interview a Chechen<br />
named Ahmed Gochiyaev, who was said by the Russian authorities to have been<br />
the mastermind behind the bombings. 32 He publicly supported the Commission in<br />
Moscow by appearing at its hearings via videolink. He drew his friend Mr Trepashkin<br />
into working with Mr Yushenkov; Mr Trepashkin undertook his own investigations in<br />
Moscow and discovered, for example, evidence that Mr Gochiyaev had been framed. 33<br />
Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong> also made initial enquiries into separate allegations that the FSB might<br />
have been involved in perpetrating the Moscow theatre siege in October 2002, another<br />
mass casualty event that had been blamed by the Russian authorities on Chechen<br />
terrorists. Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong>’s enquiries into this matter involved trying to trace a Chechen<br />
named Mr Terkibayev; I heard that these enquiries were subsequently pursued by<br />
Mr Yushenkov, and later by Ms Politkovskaya. 34<br />
4.39 It appears that not only was Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong> deeply involved in these interrelated<br />
activities, but that he became something of a public figurehead for the whole enterprise.<br />
Mr Goldfarb referred, in this context, to: “an understanding in our circle that Sasha<br />
would be essentially the face of the campaign to inform the public opinion and the<br />
powers that be that the FSB might have been involved in the apartment bombings.” 35<br />
4.40 I heard that Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong>’s second book was written between 2001 and 2002. It was<br />
written in Russian and, although subsequently translated into Polish and Bulgarian, an<br />
English translation has never been produced. 36 Its title translates as <strong>The</strong> Gang from<br />
the Lubyanka. Like Blowing Up Russia, this book was also funded by Mr Berezovsky.<br />
I heard from Marina <strong>Litvinenko</strong> and from Mr Goldfarb that the book took the form of<br />
transcripts of interviews between Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong> and a Russian journalist named Akram<br />
Murtazaev, which had been edited by Mr Goldfarb. <strong>The</strong> book contained a record of<br />
Mr <strong>Litvinenko</strong>’s own experiences in Russia in the years before he had left, as well<br />
as allegations of corruption and other criminality on behalf of the FSB in general and<br />
Mr Putin in particular. 37 <strong>The</strong> book was published in early 2002 by a company that<br />
29<br />
Goldfarb 26/17; Bell 6/18<br />
30<br />
Goldfarb 5/122<br />
31<br />
Goldfarb 5/122-123; 26/17-18; 26/26<br />
32<br />
Goldfarb 26/19-21; Felshtinsky 23/153-157<br />
33<br />
Goldfarb 26/20-21<br />
34<br />
Goldfarb 5/128; 26/23-25<br />
35<br />
Goldfarb 27/110<br />
36<br />
Marina <strong>Litvinenko</strong> 3/133<br />
37<br />
Marina <strong>Litvinenko</strong> 3/133-134; Goldfarb 5/77-79<br />
58