The Litvinenko Inquiry

Part 4 | Chapters 1 to 6 | Why would anyone wish to kill Alexander Litvinenko?
and could help us”, 150 and Mr Reilly’s impression of Mr Litvinenko and Mr Lugovoy’s
relationship was that they were, “fairly frank and open with each other, very comfortable
in each other’s presence”. 151
4.154 Mr Shvets also told me that Mr Litvinenko trusted Mr Lugovoy. He recalled that he
and Mr Litvinenko discussed whether Mr Lugovoy could be trusted after Mr Litvinenko
told him that he had given a copy of the Ivanov report that Mr Shvets had drafted to
Mr Lugovoy. The conversation, as Mr Shvets recounted it, is a telling one:
“Then it was dangerous, because I didn’t know who that guy was, this Russian guy
was, and basically it was dangerous for – it could be dangerous for my network.
And this is why I said: Sasha, do you understand what you are doing, because it
may be dangerous for us both. And this is when I started asking questions, do you
really know this guy, and he told me what he could tell me about him. Basically
he told me that he had known him for more years than he knew me. He said that
don’t worry, I trust this guy entirely, because – and basically he told me his four
criteria. First, this Russian guy, Sasha said, he had worked with the KGB, as we
did, all right, so we are from the same league. Then he said that, like I, that’s
Sasha, and this guy, we worked with the Russian security agencies. Okay. Third
criteria, he said that this guy, like Sasha, worked for Boris Berezovsky. And the
fourth criteria was that this guy, he had served time in jail for his association with
Boris Berezovsky, like Sasha did. So for Sasha, these two last criteria, they were
essential for him to trust this guy entirely. Sasha said, like, you know, this guy, he
is like me, he has served time in jail for Boris Berezovsky, I trust him entirely. I said:
okay, it’s your choice, you did it, but let’s see what happens next.” 152
4.155 Whether Mr Litvinenko was right to trust Mr Lugovoy, and whether Mr Lugovoy was
connected to what did “happen next” to Mr Litvinenko, are issues that lie at the heart
of this Inquiry.
150
Quirke 11/80
151
Reilly 10/65
152
Shvets 24/74-75
83