Chapter 9: Russian State responsibility – links between Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitri Kovtun and the Russian State

Chapter 9: Russian State responsibility – links between Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitri Kovtun and the Russian State

¶9.156 I have referred at paragraphs 9.135 – 136 above to the Yandarbiev case. In that

case, the fact that the three men arrested in Qatar for Mr Yandarbiev's murder were serving Russian intelligence officers provided a clear link between the murder and the Russian State.

¶9.157 The question that arises here is whether any similar link existed in 2006 between

Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun (whom I have found to have killed Mr Litvinenko) on the one hand, and the Russian State on the other.

¶9.158 I can deal with this point fairly shortly.

¶9.159 There is clear evidence that Mr Lugovoy spent a number of years first in the Ninth

Directorate of the KGB and then in the Federal Protection Service, and that Mr Kovtun was for a time an officer in the Russian army. It is equally clear, however, that by 2006 neither man was still formally employed by the Russian State – Mr Kovtun having deserted from the army in 1992 and Mr Lugovoy having left the Federal Protection Service in 1996.

¶9.160 That is not, however, a complete answer to the point. I referred in Part 4 above to

the Russian saying that "there is no such thing as a former KGB man". I have also referred to speculation that Mr Lugovoy may have been an FSB agent tasked to act against Mr Berezovsky and his associates (see paragraph 4.147 above).

¶9.161 That speculation was principally founded on questions that had been raised about

the genuineness of Mr Lugovoy's conviction and prison sentence in 2002. It will be recalled that Mr Lugovoy, who until shortly before his conviction had himself been an employee of Mr Berezovsky, was convicted of attempting to assist Mr Glushkov, one of Mr Berezovsky's associates, to escape from prison. Mr Lugovoy subsequently claimed to have served his 15 month sentence in Lefortovo prison in Moscow. However, Mr Glushkov, who was detained there throughout the relevant period, said that he had never seen Mr Lugovoy in the prison. Was Mr Lugovoy already an FSB agent by this time, and only given a prison sentence in order to improve his credentials with those he planned to target? Or was he perhaps recruited shortly after being sentenced, and then secretly released in return for promising his services?

¶9.162 It has also been suggested that Mr Lugovoy's thriving business career in the

years before 2006 was suspicious, given his conviction and previous links with Mr Berezovsky, in particular since many of Mr Lugovoy's business interests were in the closely regulated field of security. This, of course, was the period during which Mr Lugovoy was establishing his businesses in Russia and travelling to London to forge business relationships there, including with Mr Litvinenko.

¶9.163 Was the true position that, far from being in disfavour with the Russian authorities

during this period, they were in fact supporting him? Had Mr Lugovoy been tasked by the FSB to insinuate himself into a position of trust with Mr Berezovsky and Mr Litvinenko?

¶Part 9 | Chapters 1 to 12 | Who directed the killing?