Death of a Dissident - Alex Goldfarb [1]
Primakov, Evgeny Maksimovich (Primus), foreign minister (1996-1998); prime minister (1998-1999)
Skuratov, Yuri Ilyich, prosecutor general (1995-1999)
Voloshin, Alexander Stalievich, Putin’s chief of staff (1999-2003)
THE REBELS
Dudayev, Dzhokhar, first president of Chechnya (1991-1996), assassinated
Maskhadov, Aslan, third president of Chechnya (1997-2005), killed in a raid
Udugov, Movladi, Islamist leader, member of Dudayev and Maskhadov governments, in exile since 1999
Yandarbiyev, Zelimkhan, second president of Chechnya (1996-1997), assassinated
Zakayev, Akhmed, minister of culture, foreign minister, in exile since 2002
THE TERRORISTS
Barayev, Arbi, warlord, killed in 2001
Barayev, Movsar, leader of Moscow theater siege, killed in 2002
Basayev, Shamil, warlord, killed in 2006
Gochiyayev, Achemez, suspect in Moscow apartment bombings, denies involvement, now in hiding
Khattab, Amir, Jordanian-born warlord, leader of Wahhabi, killed in 2002
Raduyev, Salman, warlord, died in Russian custody in 2002
THE INVESTIGATORS
Felshtinsky, Yuri Georgievich, coauthor with Sasha, Blowing Up Russia
Kovalyov, Sergei Adamovich, human rights activist, Duma member
Morozova, Tatyana and Aliona, survivors of Moscow apartment bombings
Politkovskaya, Anna Stepanovna, journalist at Novaya Gazeta, assassinated in 2006
Schekochihin, Yuri Petrovich, Duma member, journalist, poisoned in 2003
Tregubova, Elena Viktorovna, journalist and author of Tales of a Kremlin Digger
Trepashkin, Mikhail Ivanovich, maverick FSB officer, lawyer, arrested in 2003
Yushenkov, Sergei Nikolaevich, Duma member, leader of Liberal Russia, assassinated in 2003
THE SUSPECTS
Kovtun, Dmitry, businessman, former GRU officer
Lugovoy, Andrei, businessman, former FSB officer
Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich (Volodya), FSB director (1998-1999), prime minister (1999), president (2000—present)
Sokolenko, Vladislav, former FSB officer
DEATH OF A DISSIDENT
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This is a very personal story of one man’s life and death, but it is also the story of historic events and the deeds and misdeeds of world leaders.
I have written the personal story with the benefit of firsthand knowledge. I have written the history with confidence that it conveys Sasha Litvinenko’s beliefs and conclusions, and my own. I do not propose that I am a neutral observer. I do maintain that I am an honest one and one who, with Marina’s assistance, can best speak for Sasha.
All quotations from conversations are based on my own recollections or on the recollections of direct participants in those conversations. Others may remember the conversations differently, and others have put forward different accounts of the historic events recounted here. The ultimate truth may be determined by history. My truth, and Sasha’s, is here for the reader.
PART I THE MAKING OF A DISSIDENT
CHAPTER 1 ASYLUM
New York. October 25, 2000
My cell phone rang before dawn.
“Salut,” a voice said. “Where are you?” It was Boris Berezovsky, who until a few months earlier had been one of Russia’s richest and most powerful oligarchs. Now he was an expatriate. He was calling from his house in Cap d’Antibes in the south of France. He had fallen out with Russia’s new president, Vladimir Putin—whom Boris himself had groomed for the job—and announced that he would not return to Russia from a vacation in France. Putin was busily purging Berezovsky’s people, who were ubiquitous, from Russia’s power structure. Boris was mindful of wiretapping, so he could not begin the conversation until I assured him I was not in Russia.
“Do you remember Sasha Litvinenko?” Boris asked.
I did. A member of the organized crime division of the Federal Security Bureau (FSB), the KGB’s successor agency, Lt. Col. Alexander (Sasha) Litvinenko was one of Boris’s men. Two years earlier, he had become a national celebrity after calling a press conference where, flanked by four masked officers who supported his allegations, he claimed that some rogue generals in the FSB had plotted to