Russian businessman Dimitry Kovtun has been questioned twice by Russian and British investigators about his relationship with Alexander Litvinenko
Today Izvestia quoted Moscow-based security contractor Dimitry Kovtun as telling police that Alexander Litvinenko was strapped for cash in the months before they met on November 1. According to Kovtun, Litivinenko told him last summer that he was no longer receiving a "stipend" to cover living expenses for his family in London and badly needed to make a business deal. Litvinenko told Kovtun that he could bring in new British clients for Kovtun's private security company in return for commissions. While no one has directly identified the source of this "stipend", Litvinenko had been employed by Boris Berezovsky and lived very close to the exiled oligarch.
Meanwhile, Andrei Lugovoy, the other businessman who met with Litvinenko on November 1, claims that his relationship with Litvinenko was also distant, and that last summer he received a similar phone call from Litvinenko offering to introduce him to potential clients in Britain. The ex-KGB bodyguard told the ITAR TASS news agency, "My security business is developing in Russia fairly successfully. I met that call with a portion of doubt. But when I came to London I called him. He immediately named some companies and brought me to them. A reputation, authority and business interests of these companies allowed me to make a conclusion that this could be very interesting."
During the 1990s, Andrei Lugovoy worked as a bodyguard for President Boris Yeltsin, former Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, and Boris Berezovsky
Both witnesses could have their own motives for casting suspicion on Litvinenko, by implying that that the Russian exile was hard up for cash. German police have detected traces of polonium-210 at a Hamburg apartment Kovtun stayed in before departing for London, suggesting that Kovtun was the one who smuggled the polonium-210 into Britain or was exposed to the substance before his arrival in the UK. Lugovoy has been accused of spying on his old boss Boris Berezovsky and other Russian exiles on behalf of the FSB.
According to a Dec. 15 article in the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Lugovoy's chief accuser is former Aeroflot Deputy Director Nikolai Glushkov, who was convicted in 2001 of embezzling millions from Russia's national airline. After Glushkov was placed under arrest, Mr. Lugovoy briefly joined him in prison for helping the convicted felon try to escape from a medical ward for convicts. After Mr. Lugovoy was released in 2002, he started a private security company called "9th Wave". The number "9" is a reference to the 9th Directorate of the KGB, the Soviet counterpart to the U.S. Secret Service. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Lugovoy kept his old job of protecting VIPs with the 9th Directorate's successor, the Federal Protective Service (FPS). As an FPS agent in President Yeltsin's security detail, Lugovoy visited the White House during the Clinton Administration.
Mr. Glushkov charges that Lugovoy's company only became successful because of FSB patronage. Mr. Lugovoy has denied all these charges and any involvement in Alexander Litvinenko's death. Lugovoy waived his right to have an attorney present during his questioning last week by Russian officials in the presence of Scotland Yard detectives.
The Russian Prosecutor General's Office announced today that it is done questioning key witnesses in the case, and has submitted transcripts of all interrogations to Scotland Yard for further review. Scotland Yard detectives have completed this phase of their investigation and are now headed home. The Prosecutor General's office has not ruled out sending its own team of investigators to London. Whether they will have the opportunity to interview Litvinenko's other associates, Boris Berezovsky and Ahkmed Zakayev, remains to be seen.
To read more facts and commentary on the Alexander Litvinenko case, please see the Crime section of Russia Blog.
UPDATE: The Moscow Times Georgy Bovt has an article in the December 21 edition contrasting media coverage of the Litvinenko poisoning in the West and inside Russia.
