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Authors: Alex Goldfarb
Tags: #Conspiracy Theories, #21st Century, #Biography, #Political Science, #Russia
Death of a Dissident
Free Press
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Copyright © 2007 by Alexander Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Free Press Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
First Free Press hardcover edition May 2007
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Manufactured in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Goldfarb, Alexander.
Death of a dissident: the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the return of the KBG / Alex Goldfarb; with Marina Litvinenko.
p. cm.
1. Litvinenko, Alexander, 1962-2006. 2. Dissenters—Russia (Federation)—Biography. 3. Federal’naia sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossii. 4. Political crimes and offenses—Russia (Federation) 5. Russia (Federation)—Politics and government—1991-I. Litvinenko, Marina, 1962-II. Title.
DK510. 766.L58G65 2007
327.12470092—dc22
[B] 2007012510
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-5165-2
ISBN-10: 1-4165-5165-4
eISBN-13: 978-1-416-56076-0
To Sasha
CAST OF CHARACTERS
THE SPIES
Barsukov, Mikhail Ivanovich,
director of the FSB (1995-1996)
Khokholkov, Evgeny Grigorievich,
head of the FSB’s Division of Operations against Criminal Organizations (URPO)
Kovalev, Nikolai Dmitrievich,
director of the FSB (1996-1998)
Trofimov, Anatoly Vasilievich,
Moscow FSB chief (1994-1997), assassinated in 2005
Volokh, Vyacheslav Ivanovich,
head of the FSB’s antiterrorism unit (ATC) (1993-1998)
THE WHISTLE-BLOWERS
Gusak, Alexander Ivanovich,
Sasha’s supervisor in URPO
Litvinenko, Alexander Valterovich
(Sasha), poisoned in 2006
Ponkin, Andrei Valerievich,
Sasha’s second in command
Shebalin, Viktor Vasilievich,
member of Sasha’s URPO unit (possibly a mole)
THE OLIGARCHS
Abramovich, Roman Arkadievich (Roma),
former partner of Berezovsky, co-owner of Sibneft
Berezovsky, Boris Abramovich,
former controlling partner in ORT
television, owner of LogoVAZ and co-owner of Sibneft, deputy secretary of National Security Council (1996-1997)
Gusinsky, Vladimir Alexandrovich (Goose, Volodya),
former owner of NTV television and Most-Bank
Potanin, Vladimir Olegovich,
head of Unexim Bank, first deputy prime minister (1996)
THE REFORMERS
Chernomyrdin, Viktor Stepanovich,
prime minister (1992-1998)
Chubais, Anatoly Borisovich,
first deputy prime minister (1994-1996)
Gaidar, Yegor Timurovich,
prime minister (1991-1992)
Malashenko, Igor Evgenievich,
founder and former president of NTV
Nemtsov, Boris Yefimovich,
first deputy prime minister (1997-1998)
Rybkin, Ivan Petrovich,
speaker of the Duma (1994-1996), secretary of National Security Council (1996-1998), presidential candidate (2004)
Soros, George,
American philanthropist
Yeltsin, Boris Nikolaevich,
president of the Russian Federation (1991-1999)
Yeltsin, Tatyana Borisovna (Tanya),
daughter of Boris
Yumashev, Valentin Borisovich (Valya),
journalist, Yeltsin’s chief of staff, married Tatyana Yeltsin
THE AUTOCRATS
Korzhakov, Alexander Ivanovich,
head of Yeltsin’s security (FSO) (1991-1996)
Kulikov, Anatoly Sergeevich,
minister of the interior (1995-1999)
Lebed, Alexander Ivanovich,
chief of Yeltsin’s National Security Council
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
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.
THE MAKING OF A DISSIDENT
CHAPTER 1
A
SYLUM
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 assassinate Berezovsky. This happened shortly after Boris Yeltsin replaced the previous FSB director, a seasoned three-star general,
with Putin, who was then a low-level ex-spy and a dark horse from the Kremlin administration.
Going against
Kontora
(the Company) on prime-time TV did not sit well with the folks at Lubyanka HQ. Shortly afterward, Litvinenko was arrested on a charge concocted by Internal Affairs that he had beaten up a suspect some years earlier. He spent several months in Lefortovo, the infamous investigative prison of the old KGB. I had asked Boris to introduce me to Sasha at the time, because I was running a public health project under George Soros to contain an epidemic of TB in Russian prisons. I wanted to quiz Sasha about the medical services in Lefortovo. I had gained access to the regular prisons of the Justice Ministry, but Lefortovo, an FSB domain, was off-limits. Any occasion to meet a former inmate was a chance to begin to assess the state of that secret place.