Chapter 3: Dmitri Kovtun
Chapter 3: Dmitri Kovtun
¶6.25 Before commencing on this stage of the narrative, it is necessary to introduce another of the key figures in the events surrounding Mr Litvinenko's death – Dmitri Kovtun.
¶6.26 Mr Kovtun is, with Mr Lugovoy, wanted by the British authorities on suspicion of the
murder of Mr Litvinenko. In common with Mr Lugovoy, a warrant has been issued for his arrest. Unsuccessful attempts have been made to extradite both men to the UK.
¶6.27 Mr Kovtun did not initially show any interest in taking part in these proceedings (unlike
Mr Lugovoy, who was for a time represented as an interested person in the inquest). The attempts made by the Inquiry to contact Mr Kovtun in Russia and to seek his participation were met with silence. However, at the very end of the Inquiry's open hearings, Mr Kovtun wrote to the Solicitor to the Inquiry and said that he wished to give evidence. In keeping with my desire for this Inquiry to be as full as possible, arrangements were made to enable Mr Kovtun to give evidence. Closing submissions were put back, further hearings were arranged and video link facilities in Moscow were established. One of the requirements that I set for Mr Kovtun giving evidence was that he provide the Inquiry with a detailed written witness statement. He complied with this requirement. In the end, however, Mr Kovtun did not give oral evidence on the days that had been set aside for this purpose. The events leading to Mr Kovtun's decision not to give evidence were complicated, and I do not propose to go into them here. They are set out in observations that I made at the time.10
¶6.28 Although Mr Kovtun did not in the end give oral evidence and submit himself to
questioning, there is a range of evidence available to me about his background and about his involvement in the events that led to Mr Litvinenko's death. Mr Kovtun has given his own account in a number of press interviews and also, as I have mentioned, in the statement that he provided to the Inquiry. And there are also other witnesses who have given evidence about Mr Kovtun.
¶6.29 Mr Kovtun was born in Moscow in 1965.11 I received evidence from a number of
sources that Mr Kovtun's father, like Mr Lugovoy's, had been a senior officer in the Russian military, and that the two men had known each other as children as a result of this connection. For example, in his June 2015 witness statement, Mr Kovtun stated:
"I have known A.K. Lugovoy since 1978 or 1979. We lived in the same building where my family and his family were given flats at the same time. Our fathers were friends and worked together at the Army General HQ of the USSR Armed Forces. We were pupils at different schools – I am actually 1 year older than Lugovoy – but we spent a great deal of time together as children, visited each other, exchanged books, etc."12 Berezovsky 25/3-30 Marina Litvinenko 4/31-32; 4/41; 4/112-114 INQ019146 (page 22 paragraph 69) INQ021208 (page 6) Elenora Wall 32/81 INQ020031 No person shall produce or show to any witness any of the Schedule material, or ask any questions which tend to reveal the existence or content of such material, otherwise than in accordance with a procedure formulated by the Core Inquiry Team and agreed in writing by the Minister.
¶6.30 Mr Kovtun's statement goes on to assert that he attended the same military school as
Mr Lugovoy for several years. He left in 1986 and joined the Russian army. He was posted first to Czechoslovakia and then to Parchim in what was then East Germany.
¶6.31 In 1991, while he was still posted in Parchim, Mr Kovtun married his first wife, who is now called Inna Hohne. Ms Hohne lives in Germany and did not respond to requests
114¶The Litvinenko Inquiry
to give oral evidence to the Inquiry. I was able, however, to hear evidence about information that she provided to the German police in the course of their criminal investigations related to Mr Litvinenko's death.
¶6.32 Ms Hohne explained during those interviews that only a few months after she and
Mr Kovtun had married, Mr Kovtun had discovered that his unit was being transferred to Chechnya. Ms Hohne did not wish to leave Germany and Mr Kovtun did not wish to leave her, or to go to fight in Chechnya. They therefore decided that Mr Kovtun would desert from the army and that they would go to West Germany and claim asylum. They implemented this plan in early 1992, secretly leaving the army base in Parchim and travelling together to Hamburg, where they claimed asylum.13
¶6.33 It would appear that life in Hamburg was not all that Mr Kovtun and Ms Hohne had
hoped that it might be. Ms Hohne's evidence was that they were accommodated in a hostel for asylum seekers, and that shortly afterwards she and Mr Kovtun separated – she told the German investigators that, "the reason amongst others was his escalating drunkenness."14
¶6.34 Mr Kovtun stayed in Hamburg and in 1994 met Marina Wall, whom he married in 1996. I
had available to me the transcripts of interviews that German investigators conducted following Mr Litvinenko's death with both Marina Wall and also with her mother, Dr Elenora Wall. As in the case of Ms Hohne, neither Ms Wall nor her mother responded to requests to appear before the Inquiry as a live witness (and, like Ms Hohne, I could not compel them to do so because they are out of the jurisdiction), but I did adduce in evidence the accounts that they had given when they were interviewed in Germany.
¶6.35 In the account that she gave to German investigators, Marina Wall described how
Mr Kovtun lived with her in Hamburg from the time of their marriage in 1996 until he moved back to Moscow in 2003. She said that they had in fact separated in the previous year; 2002.15 The evidence was that Mr Kovtun did not have any stable employment during the entire ten years or so that he was in Hamburg. He lived off social benefits, with occasional work as a waiter, washing dishes and as a refuse collector.16 One of the restaurants where Mr Kovtun worked in Hamburg was called Il Porto. As I shall come to describe, Mr Kovtun was in contact with some of the men with whom he had worked at that restaurant in the days before he met Mr Litvinenko in the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel.
¶6.36 As I have mentioned, Inna Hohne and Marina Wall were interviewed by German
investigators in the aftermath of Mr Litvinenko's death. By the time of the interviews, media reports had already raised the possibility that Mr Kovtun, who was described in some of the reports as a businessman in the oil and gas industry, may have had a hand in Mr Litvinenko's death.
¶6.37 The evidence that Mr Kovtun's two former wives gave to the German investigators
about his character, and about his possible involvement in a murder, was remarkably consistent.
¶6.38 However, if the evidence of Inna Hohne and Marina Wall about Mr Kovtun's personality was remarkably similar, there was a striking dissonance between, on the one hand,
115¶Part 6 | Chapters 1 to 8 | The polonium trail – events in October and November 2006
their joint evidence about him, and, on the other hand, the evidence – to which I shall come – suggesting that by the latter part of 2006 Mr Kovtun was both a successful businessman and a cold blooded killer. This was a tension that both women recognised.
¶6.39 The following passages are taken from Inna Hohne's evidence:
"Dmitry wanted to be a porno star. He never said anything about any brokerage deals or sales. I have now read his interview in Spiegel and have read that there was trade in gas and oil. I can only say that this has absolutely nothing to do with Dmitry."17 Berezovsky 25/7 Goldfarb 26/122 INQ019146 (page 25 paragraph 77) Mascall 8/75 INQ019031; INQ019054 Dombey 23/24-30; INQ020031 (page 2 paragraphs S9-S10) The Minister may amend this Restriction Notice at any time.
"Dmitry is not particularly down to earth, more a man about town. He had all sorts of dreams and plans, none of which he realised, however."18 Marina Litvinenko 3/40 lines 24-25 INQ019146 (page 25 paragraph 79) BLK000134 Mascall 8/76 Bruce Burgess 21/1-171 Mascall 29/77-78
"He drank a lot, which was eventually the reason for our separation. ... I only lived together with him for a very short time. I do not know a great deal about him. I cannot imagine how Dmitry got involved in this affair. He is not really the type for this, not the sort of person who does big deals or is suited in any way to this. I know Dmitry really as not a particularly reliable person. That is all I can say about this"19 INQ017734 (page 4 paragraph 12) BER000167 INQ001886 (pages 5-6) Mascall 8/77 Tristam Burgess 21/172-213 Death of Dissident, pp.337-338
¶6.40 Marina Wall said the following:
"Every woman finds Dmitry charming. It is just he does not fancy working and he is not a family man. He is more of a man about town. That is why we were not suited..."20 Zakayev 26/137-138; 26/140-141 Berezovsky v RTR & Terluk [2010] EWHC 476 (QB); Terluk v Berezovsky [2011] EWCA Civ 1534 INQ001788 (pages 21-22 paragraphs 127-128) Marina Wall 32/58 Bull 21/213-256 INQ006067 (page 5 paragraph 31)
"I looked on the internet and found out Litvinenko is supposed to have been poisoned with thallium. I then read that Litvinenko had met two businessmen in a hotel. They are said to have been Lugovoy and Dmitry. My first thought was that I found this ridiculous and absurd. When I read that an agent was involved and then my husband, I could never imagine that. I mainly took care of our living expenses and dealt with all financial matters. He didn't even have an account."21 Marina Litvinenko 3/41-43 Knuckey 7/38-44; see also Mr Knuckey's report and timeline relating to this incident: INQ019304; INQ019301 Marina Litvinenko 3/125-129 Marina Wall 32/63 Marina Wall 32/66-67 INQ016403 (pages 29-32)
When asked whether Mr Kovtun was skilled technically, for example with regard to computers, Marina Wall stated:
"I had to do everything. I had to set up the letters on the computer. He was not able to do this. Dmitry was no handyman. He could not even bang a nail into the wall. Finally, I would like to say that it is beyond my power of imagination that Dmitry is an agent or a member of the secret service. I really cannot believe that for the life of me."22 Sixsmith The Litvinenko File (pages 78-79); Cowell The Terminal Spy (pages 103-104) INQ019146 (page 25 paragraph 77) Marina Litvinenko 4/110-111 Marina Wall 32/75 Mascall 22/127 A1 2/131-140
¶6.41 Following the discovery of radioactive contamination in her flat, Marina Wall was also
asked whether she could, "conceive that Dmitry brought any dangerous substances into your flat", and gave a very clear answer:
116"I really cannot imagine that he would put my children in danger. I am more inclined to believe that he was already ill himself or didn't know that."23 Marina Litvinenko 3/31-35; INQ017734 (page 4 paragraph 13) Bukovsky 26/86-90; 26/109-110 Marina Litvinenko 4/11 lines 11-15 Marina Wall 32/66-67 Horwell 33/16-17 INQ016403 (page 30)
¶The Litvinenko Inquiry
If Mr Kovtun was handling or carrying polonium 210 at around this time, it does not of course follow that he knew precisely what the substance was, or about its qualities. It may be that he had not been told. A similar question arises with regard to Mr Lugovoy. I will return to this matter in due course.
¶6.42 The account given to German investigators by Marina Wall's mother, Elenora Wall,
was to a similar effect. It appears that she remained close to Mr Kovtun after his return to Moscow in 2003. She said that still in 2006, Mr Kovtun was:
"... always very modest. He only had a few clothes. Money and he did not go together. That is how we know him... Dmitry is not the person who takes a step forward in order to carry out big deals."24 Zakayev 26/142 lines 9-11 Service 28/30-31; 28/69-70; Felshtinsky 23/175-177 Goldfarb 5/102-107 Elenora Wall 32/77 INQ016403 (page 31)
¶She added:
"Dmitry is not a brutal person who kills people. No member of the KGB would have put poison in Dmitry's hands. He is a very soft person. He isn't a businessman, he is a philosopher. I do not believe that he knew when he visited us that he was giving off radioactivity. He was just as he always was. He would not have come if he had known that."25 INQ017734 (page 5 paragraph 15) Goldfarb 27/109-110 Goldfarb 26/2-8 Elenora Wall 32/79-80 INQ018946; INQ017548 (pages 8-9); Goldfarb 26/125-127
¶6.43 Finally, Elenora Wall also said something about what Mr Kovtun told her when he had become ill following Mr Litvinenko's death. She said:
"He told me that he had probably got some of the poison which killed Litvinenko. He said word for word, 'Those arseholes have probably poisoned us all'."26 INQ002076 (page 4) Felshtinsky 23/135-137; Goldfarb 5/113-114 Reilly 10/23-26 Elenora Wall 32/81 INQ014604; INQ014605; INQ014607; INQ014608; INQ014609; INQ014610; INQ014611; INQ014612; INQ014613; INQ014620; INQ014621; INQ014623; INQ014624
117She added that he had not explained the identity of the "arseholes" to whom he had referred.
¶Part 6 | Chapters 1 to 8 | The polonium trail – events in October and November 2006