Andrei Konstantinowitsch Lugowoi
Andrei Konstantinowitsch Lugowoi ( Russian Андрей Константинович Луговой , scientific transliteration Andrej Konstantinovič Lugovoj ; born September 16, 1966 in Baku ) is a former employee of the Soviet secret service KGB and probably also of the Russian FSB . Today he is an internationally active businessman in the field of private security services and a member of the Russian Duma .
He is involved in the affair surrounding the murder of Alexander Litvinenko , a former member of the KGB / FSB and later critic of the then Russian President Putin , who was poisoned by polonium- 210 in London in autumn 2006 .
KGB career
Lugovoi comes from a family that has been in civil and military service for several generations, grew up in the Caucasus and spent most of his youth in Georgia . He attended an elite Moscow military academy from 1983 to 1987. There he was in contact with Dmitri Kovtun and Vyacheslav Sokolenko, who may also be involved in the Litvinenko affair (Kovtun and Sokolenko had traveled to London together with Lugovoi and other Russians shortly before Litvinenko's death). In 1987 he joined the 9th Directorate of the KGB, which was responsible for the personal protection of high-ranking representatives of the Kremlin . He was a platoon leader for five years. He then served as a commander in the training company of the Kremlin regiment . In 1991 he was transferred to the personal protection unit, where he remained until his resignation at the end of 1996. During his time as a bodyguard he was responsible for the security of the then Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar (1992/93), the head of the presidential administration Sergei Filatov, the foreign minister Kozyrev and (from 1996 under Boris Yeltsin ) the deputy secretary of the security council Boris Berezovsky (Litvinenko and other employees of the KGB successor organization, FSB, publicly accused its leadership in 1998 of having received an assignment from him to kill Berezovsky). According to his own statements, Lugowoi was never a member of the FSB.
Later activity
After leaving the civil service, Lugovoi continued to work in the private security industry. For several years he was head of security at the private television broadcaster ORT, which at the time belonged to the corporate empire of the oligarchs Boris Berezovsky and Badri Patarkazishvili . After Putin took office, the majority of the station was again transferred to state ownership, the current name is Perwy kanal .
In 2001, Lugovoi was arrested and charged with organizing an escape attempt by Nikolai Glushkov . Glushkov, formerly deputy director of Aeroflot airline , was arrested in 2000 on suspicion of fraud (in connection with the investigation into Berezovsky for breach of trust against Aeroflot's foreign exchange holdings). Berezovsky and Patarkazishvili were able to flee to London in 2000, but Glushkov's attempt to escape failed. Lugovoi was sentenced to 14 months in prison in 2002.
Lugovoi is one of the owners of a company that is active in the business fields of private security, distribution of beverages and wine ( Eugene Boujele Vine Ltd. , the largest kvass manufacturer in Russia, Pershin brand , with headquarters in Sassovo in Ryazan Oblast ). It employs around 500 people and is said to be worth the equivalent of up to 150 million euros. Lugovoi himself is a millionaire and owns a private plane. The security company works u. a. for Patarkatsishvili (who is also the business partner of the US President Bush's family ) and for Patarkatsishvili's business partner and closest friend of the Putin family, Xenija Sobchak (the daughter of Anatoly Sobchak , the former mayor of St. Petersburg and Putin's foster father ). Lugovoi also brought his former KGB comrade Sokolenko to join his security company.
Litvinenko case
In the months before Litvinenko's mysterious death, Lugovoi met several times on business, most recently on November 1, 2006, the day on which Litvinenko showed the first signs of the poisoning that would later lead to his death. Traces of polonium-210 were found in many of the places Lugovoi had been to since his last trip to London on October 16. Since May 22, 2007, Lugovoi has been officially accused of the murder of Litvinenko by the British Attorney General. Lugovoi denies the perpetrator and any involvement in it.
A possible involvement of Lugovoi is widely discussed in the public discussion and in the worldwide media. Accordingly, the fact that he had the closest contacts to former secret service employees and more or less unscrupulous oligarchs, as well as the polonium contamination found at his whereabouts before Litvinenko's death, speaks for a perpetrator or involvement of Lugovoi. In favor of Lugovoi, the fact that the poisoned Litvinenko was known to have been a supporter of Berezovsky, Lugovoi's long-standing client, would speak in favor.
Lugovoi himself accuses the British secret services. Litvinenko worked for MI-6 and also tried to recruit him for it. Berezovsky or the Russian mafia could also have been involved in the poisoning of Litvinenko. Both MI-6 and Berezovsky denied these allegations.
According to the Russian constitution, the required extradition of Andrei Lugovoi to Great Britain is not possible. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called on the Russians to amend their constitution in the course of the dispute.
In July 2006, the Russian parliament passed a law expressly allowing Russian state organs to “liquidate” terrorists abroad.
Political career
In November 2007, Lugovoi announced that he would run for the LDPR party of the nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky in the 2007 Duma elections . The party made it into parliament, giving Lugovoi a mandate and parliamentary immunity. In 2015 he received an Order of Merit from Vladimir Putin.
Web links
- What soft-drink entrepreneur used as a cover by Litvinenko assassins? The Independent , June 2, 2007
- Mysterious Personage in Litvinenko's Case ( Memento from December 16, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), AXIS, December 5, 2006
Individual evidence
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Editorial: London's false hardship against Russia | FTD.de
- ↑ Federal law no. 35-FZ on counteraction against terrorism
- ↑ UK inquiry into Litvinenko's poisoning death wraps up , CNN, August 1, 2015
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lugowoi, Andrei Konstantinowitsch |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Russian KGB employee, accused in the Alexander Litvinenko murder |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 16, 1966 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Baku |