Orders to Kill

by Amy Knight

  22.  Litvinenko Inquiry hearings, testimony of Craig Mascall, February 26, 2015, 160–170. https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/10/lit260215-Redacted.pdf; also see evidence for the Inquiry: https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/04/INQ012408wb.pdf; https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/04/INQ018199wb.pdf.

  23.  Litvinenko Inquiry evidence, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160613090305/https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/04/INQ012404wb.pdf.

  24.  The Owen Report, 195; Litvinenko Inquiry hearings, February 25, 2015, testimony of Norbeto Andrade, 120-124, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160613090305/https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/10/lit260215-Redacted.pdf.

  25.  Litvinenko Inquiry hearings, read testimony of Berezovsky, March 16, 2015, 16. https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/03/lit160315.pdf.

  26.  Litvinenko Inquiry hearings, testimony of yaragi Abdul, February 27, 2015, 87-104, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160613090305/https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/10/lit270215-Redacted.pdf; author interview with Akhmed Zakaev, London, February 5, 2015.

  27.  Interview with Akhmed Zakaev, February 5, 2015.

  28.  Litvinenko Inquiry Hearings, testimony of Alex Goldfarb, February 4, 2015, 132–159, https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/02/lit040215.pdf.

  29.  Ibid.

  30.  Author’s interview with Marina Litvinenko, April 26, 2014.

  31.  Litvinenko Inquiry hearings, testimony of John Harrison, March 3, 2015, 81-98; evidence, Lugovoy witness statement, October 26, 2011, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160613090305/https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/08/INQ001842.pdf.

  32.  Litvinenko Inquiry hearings, opening statements, January 27, 2015, 132, https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/10/lit270115-Redacted.pdf.

  33.  The Owen Report, 180; Interfax, transcript of press conference of A. Lugovoy and D. Kovtun, May 31, 2007, Inquiry evidence, https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/08/INQ001886.pdf.

  34.  Litvinenko Inquiry, evidence from Marina Wall, July 28, 2015, 63, https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/07/lit280715.pdf.

  35.  Litvinenko Inquiry hearings, testimony of Craig Mascall, February 27, 2015, 76, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160613090305/https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/10/lit270215-Redacted.pdf.

  36.  Litvinenko Inquiry Hearings, Patarkatsishvili evidence read, February 17, 2015, 59, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160613090305/https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/10/lit170215-Redacted.pdf.

  37.  Litvinenko Inquiry hearings, Reilly testimony, February 12, 2015, 130.

  38.  Litvinenko Inquiry evidence, Berezovsky interview with police, March 30, 2007, tape 4, 11, https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/04/INQ017631wb.pdf; tape 5, 11–12, March 30, 2007, https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/04/INQ017647wb.pdf.

  39.  http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/24026.

  40.  Litvinenko Inquiry evidence, Interfax, transcript of press conference of A. Lugovoy and D. Kovtun, May 31, 2007, https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/08/INQ001886.pdf.

  41.  Ibid.

  42.  Litvinenko Inquiry evidence, Lugovoy interview with El Pais, https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/04/INQ017684wb.pdf.

  43.  Litvinenko Inquiry evidence, U.S. Embassy Cable, Moscow, September 18, 2007 (confidential), https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/07/BLK000057.pdf.

  44.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrjUFWnrDy0.

  45.  See Kseniia Lugovaia’s website: http://ksenialugovaya.ru/novosti/.

  46.  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-16859830.

  47.  Litvinenko Inquiry evidence, statements from Valter Litvinenko, https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/03/INQ014629.pdf; https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/03/COM00011004.pdf; https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/03/COM00011011.pdf.

  48.  Litvinenko Inquiry hearings, testimony of Alex Goldfarb, March 17, 2015, 13, https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/03/lit170315.pdf; Harding, A Very Expensive Poison, 294–298.

  49.  Litvinenko Inquiry hearings, testimony of Marina Litvinenko, February 2, 2015, 21–22, https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/02/lit020215.pdf.

  50.  The Owen Report, 246.

  51.  Knight, “Fatal Poison in London.”

  52.  Jonathan Strong, “Heavy-handed Putin, the American Thinker, June 18, 2009.

  53.  Knight, “Fatal Poison in London.”

  9.   Continued Onslaught Against Kremlin Challengers

    1.  https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-concurrent-resolution/154/text.

    2.  https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-concurrent-resolution/151/text.

    3.  Ray Finch, “Snapshot of a War Crime: The Case of Russian Colonel Yuri Budanov,” PIPSS, The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies, Issue 12, 2011, https://pipss.revues.org/3840.

    4.  As quoted in Luke Harding, Expelled: A Journalist’s Descent into the Russian Mafia State, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2012), 86.

    5.  Finch, “Snapshot of a War Crime.”

    6.  Ibid.

    7.  Fatima Tlis, “Markelov Assassination Tied to Release of Budanov?” North Caucasian Weekly, January 23, 2009, http://www.jamestown.org/programs/nc/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=34401&cHash=7ae3981d38.

    8.  Kavkazskii uzel, January 20, 2015, http://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/218822/.

    9.  Reporters without Borders: May 2, 2011, https://rsf.org/en/news/do-guilty-verdicts-double-murder-mark-beginning-end-impunity.

  10.  Ibid.

  11.  RIA Novosti, January 19, 2014: http://ria.ru/spravka/20140119/989790241.html.

  12.  Olga Malysh, “Why Was Stanislav Markelov Killed,” The Other Russia, January 23, 2009.

  13.  Harding, Expelled, 89.

  14.  Ibid., 90.

  15.  Ibid., 94.

  16.  Estemirova, Natal’ia, Lenta.ru, https://lenta.ru/lib/14199221/.

  17.  Ibid.

  18.  Shura Burtin, “Za chto ubili Natashu Estemirovu?” Burtin.livejournal.com, July 20, 2009.

  19.  See the documentary “Kto Ubil Natal’iu Estemirovu,” posted on YouTube, May 29, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly5IbS_uwXY.

  20.  http://www.waynakh.com/eng/2009/07/all-world-give-reaction-for-murder-of-estemirova/.

  21.  Harding, Expelled, 101.

  22.  https://pen.org/book/salman-rushdie-reads-wild-garlic-gatherers-by-natalia-estemirova.

  23.  Burtin, “Za chto ubili Natashu Estemirovu?”; Danila Gal’perovich, “Natal’ia Estemirova: chetyre goda posle ubiistova,” Russian Service of Voice of America, July 15, 2013, http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/content/dg-estemirova/1701906.html.

  24.  http://hro.rightsinrussia.info/archive/human-rights-defenders/oleg-orlov/trial-continues.

  25.  Gal’perovich, “Natal’ia Estemirova.”

  26.  “On The Killing of Natalia Estemirova,” Memorial Website, July 17, 2009, http://memo.ru/eng/news/index.htm.

  27.  Burtin, “Za chto ubili Natashu Estemirovu.” Also see the website of Memorial for a report on the telephone conversation: http://www.memo.ru/2009/07/20/2007095.htm.

  28.  See Medvedev’s telegram to Memorial, July 18, 2009: http://www.memo.ru/2009/07/20/2007092.htm; Luke Harding, “Dmitry Medvedev Rejects Claim Chechen Leader Ordered Killing,” The Guardian, July 16, 2009, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jul/16/natalia-estemirova-killing-russia-chechnya.

  29.  “Bearing Witness in Chechnya: The Legacy of Natalia Estemirov,” Pen Center New York, October 23, 2009, https://pen.org/book/conversation-elena-milashina-tanya-lokshina.

  30.  RIA Novosti, April 28, 2011, http
://ria.ru/justice/20110428/369088920.html.

  31.  Elena Milashina, “Pokazatel’naia rasprava,” Novaia gazeta, July 16, 2012, http://www.novayagazeta.ru/inquests/53550.html.

  32.  Memorial, Novaia gazeta and FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights), “Two Years After the Murder of Natalia Estemirova: The Investigation Continues Along a False Path,” September, 2011, http://www.memo.ru/2011/10/19/nesten.pdf. My following discussion draws on this report.

  33.  Ibid., 10.

  34.  Ibid., 12.

  35.  Ibid., 22–23.

  36.  As quoted in The Guardian, July 7, 2009. The reset was officially started in March, 2009, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a prop “reset” button. That the word “reset” was misspelled in Russian may have been a harbinger of the ultimate failure of the new U.S. policy toward Russia.

  37.  As quoted in The New York Times, July 8, 2009.

  38.  Peter Baker, “Obama Resets Ties With Russia, But Work Remains,” The New York Times, July 7, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/world/europe/08prexy.html.

  39.  Mikhail Zygar, “The Reset That Never Was,” Foreign Policy, December 9, 2016, http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/12/09/the-russian-reset-that-never-was-putin-obama-medvedev-libya-mikhail-zygar-all-the-kremlin-men/.

  40.  Jan Hornat, “Obama’s ‘Reset’ with Russia: Failure or Lost Opportunity,” Post, March 15, 2013, http://postnito.cz/obamas-reset-with-russia-failure-or-lost-opportunity/.

  41.  http://www.heritage.org/research/testimony/2011/07/rethinking-reset-re-examining-the-obama-administration-russia-policy.

  42.  “Bearing Witness in Chechnya: The Legacy of Natalia Estemirova.”

  43.  “Russia: Bring Natalia Estemirova’s Murderers to Justice,” Human Rights Watch, July 13, 2012, https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/07/13/russia-bring-natalia-estemirovas-murderers-justice.

  44.  “Case History: Natalia Estemirova,” Frontline Defenders.org, https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/case-history-natalia-estemirova#case-update-id-2226.

  45.  Ali Feruz, “Vse v tom zhe pekle,” Pravozashchita, July 15, 2016, http://old.memo.ru/d/267661.html.

  10. Boris Berezovsky: Suicide or Murder?

    1.  Litvinenko Inquiry, witness statement of Michael Cotlick, July 20, 2010, https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/04/INQ016762wb.pdf.

    2.  Robert Coalson, “Berezovsky and Putin: The Real Tandem of Putinism?,” RadioFreeEuropeRadioLiberty, March 24, 2013. http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-berezovsky-death-legacy-analysis-putin/24937601.html.

    3.  Michael Freedman, “Dark Force,” Forbes, May 11, 2007, http://www.forbes.com/global/2007/0521/046.html.

    4.  Nemtsov, Ispoved’ buntarya, 59–60.

    5.  Celestine Bohlen, “Russian Security Agencies Raid Media Empire’s Offices,” The New York Times, May 12, 2000, http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/12/world/russian-security-agencies-raid-media-empire-s-offices.html.

    6.  Ibid.

    7.  Kommersant, no. 96, May 31, 2000, http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/149293.

    8.  Ibid.

    9.  Amy Knight, “The Curse of the Kursk,” The Globe and Mail, August 28, 2000, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/the-curse-of-the-kursk/article769470/. I should add that I visited Murmansk, the home of the Russian Northern Fleet, in the summer of 2015. Many of the crew from the Kursk were from this city. Everyone who I spoke to still has deep resentment toward Putin.

  10.  Ian Traynor, “Putin Aims Kursk Fury at Media,” The Guardian, August 24, 2000, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/aug/25/kursk.russia2. Putin’s reaction is similar to that of Donald Trump and his diatribes about “Fake News.”

  11.  http://pandoraopen.ru/2016-01-18/zhyostkaya-kritika-putina-po-povodu-apl-kursk-poslednyaya-peredcha-dorenko-na-ort/.

  12.  “Berezovsky, Putin, and an Absence of Respect,” The Moscow Times, March 23, 2013, https://themoscowtimes.com/news/berezovsky-putin-and-an-absence-of-respect-22633.

  13.  Kommersant, November 15, 2000, http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/163303.

  14.  Death of a Dissident, 233.

  15.  Ibid., 236–238.

  16.  Ibid., 238–239.

  17.  Ibid.

  18.  RIA Novosti, 2/14/2011, http://ria.ru/spravka/20110214/334228053.html.

  19.  Ibid.

  20.  Death of a Dissident, 248.

  21.  http://www.compromat.ru/page_18101.htm.

  22.  Berezovsky interview, Ekho Moskvy, January 25, 2006, http://echo.msk.ru/news/302921.html?=last.

  23.  Litvinenko Inquiry evidence, https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/2015/08/INQ001875.pdf.

  24.  http://rumafia.com/en/dosje/38.

  25.  News.ru.com, February 13, 2008, http://www.newsru.com/world/13feb2008/badri_umer.html.

  26.  Masha Gessen, “Comrades-In-Arms,” Vanity Fair, November 13, 2012, http://www.vanityfair.com/news/politics/2012/11/roman-abramovich-boris-berezovsky-feud-russia.

  27.  Approved Judgment, Mrs. Justice Gloster, DBE, in the case of Berezovsky vs. Abramovich, August 31, 2012, http://cisarbitration.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Decision-Abramovich-vs.-Berezovsky.pdf.

  28.  Ibid.; OPUS 2 International, Official Court Reporters, Berezovsky v. Abramovich, Transcript, Day 4, October 6, 2011: http://pravo.ru/store/interdoc/doc/298/Day_4.pdf.

  29.  http://www.compromat.ru/page_31831.htm.

  30.  Ian Cobain, “Boris Berezovsky Was ‘Depressed After Court Battle With Abramovich,’” The Guardian, March 26, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/26/boris-berezovsky-inquest-spoke-suicide-roman-abramovich.

  31.  Il’ia Zhegulev, “Poslednee inter’viu Borisa Berezovkogo: Ia ne vizhu smysla zhizni,” Forbes, March 23, 2013, https://web.archive.org/web/20130601170326/http://m.forbes.ru/article.php?id=236176.

  32.  Ian Cobain, “Boris Berezovsky Inquest Returns Open Verdict on Death,” The Guardian, March 27, 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/27/boris-berezovsky-inquest-open-verdict-death.

  33.  Claire Duffin, “Billionaire critic of Putin may have been murdered, rules coroner,” The Telegraph, March 28, 2014, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10728908/Billionaire-critic-of-Putin-may-have-been-murdered-rules-coroner.html.

  34.  BBC News, March 27, 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-26778866.

  35.  Mariia Mishina, interview with Sabirova, Novoe vremia, March 25, 2013, http://newtimes.ru/stati/novosti/54a0b26a712c900a9594f01abc6faff6-on-govorul-mne-ochen-ploho.html.

  36.  Ibid.

  37.  Author interview with Marina and Anatoly Litvinenko, London April 23, 2014.

  38.  Patrick Sawer and Tom Parfitt, “Boris Berezovsky: ‘My friend Boris would not have taken his own life,’” The Telegraph, March 31, 2013, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9962460/Boris-Berezovsky-My-friend-Boris-would-not-have-taken-his-own-life.html.

  39.  http://www.vedomosti.ru/finance/articles/2016/07/26/650538-londonskii-suanachka.

  40.  As quoted in vesti.ru, May 12, 2013: http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=1083667.

  41.  Interview with Alex Goldfarb, February 27, 2017.

  42.  For a complete expose on Stepanova, her husband, and Kliuev, including details of their massive real estate and financial holdings, see the following website: http://russian-untouchables.com/eng/olga-stepanova/. Also see Browder, Red Notice, 318–326; 347–353.

  43.  As quoted in Luke Harding, “Russian with Links to Whistleblower Left UK Day After Death, Court Told,” The Guardian, May 10, 2016. Also see Robert Mendich, “Russian Lawyer Accused of Being ‘Candidate’ in Murder of Whistle Blower,” The Telegraph, May 19, 2016.

  44.  Tom Parfitt, “Lawyer Denies He Could Have Killed Banker,” the Sunday Times, May 23, 2016.

&n
bsp; 45.  Luke Harding and Shaun Walker, “‘Poisoned’ Russian Whistleblower Was Fatalistic over Death Threats,” The Guardian, May 19, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/19/poisoned-russian-whistleblower-was-fatalistic-over-death-threats.

  46.  John Keenan, “The Strange Death of Alexander Perepilichnny,” Prospect, September 12, 2016, http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/the-strange-death-of-alexander-perepilichnny.