Steve LeVine - Putin's Labyrinth

Anna telephoned a trusted friendQuotes and detail of exchange with Dima Muratov and Alexander Voloshin from author interview with Muratov, September 4, 2007.

“You’ll help him”Elena Baranovskaya quoted by Anna Politkovskaya, Novaya Gazeta, October 23, 2003.

The assault had been organized withMark Franchetti, The Sunday Times (London), November 3, 2002.

Still, after the fentanyl was releasedDetail on the continued pumping of fentanyl into the theater is from a former senior Kremlin official who observed the decision-making on the use of the gas firsthand. He spoke to the author on condition of anonymity so as to preserve his relations within the Kremlin.

A former Kremlin official who hadIbid.

“The gas was rather harmless”Author interview with Vyacheslav Nikonov.

Yuri Sinelshchikov, a former deputyQuotes and detail from author interview with Yuri Sinelshchikov.

Anna Politkovskaya had her suspicionsPolitkovskaya’s interview with Khanpasha Terkibayev, Novaya Gazeta, April 28, 2003.

After the interview, TerkibayevNatalya Serova, Politkom.ru, April 29, 2003.

“taken me by a finger”Irina Fadeeva quoted by Anna Politkovskaya, Novaya Gazeta, November 25, 2002.

“a severe wound in our heart”Vladimir Putin quoted by RFE-RL on October 23, 2003. Putin was in Kyrgyzstan when he issued the statement on the anniversary.

This somewhat vain politicalBoris Shikhmuradov was arrested in Turkmenistan either on December 25 or December 26, 2002. His arrest was announced the latter day.

“doesn’t go out to cleanse”Background on Russian gangs and quote from author interview with Mark Galeotti, February 25, 2007.

“have hotter blood so are”Author interview with Natalia Litvinenko, September 1, 2007. She and her two children with Alexander Litvinenko—their son, also named Alexander Litvinenko, and daughter, Sonya—also met for lengthy interviews with the author’s assistant, Anna Chernyakovskaya, May 26, 2007.

“felt sidelined”Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko, Death of a Dissident (New York: Free Press, 2007), 21–22.

The two met when LitvinenkoIbid., 29–31.

“[T]hey developed a bond shared”Ibid., 37.

“You will be the one to”Ibid., 124.

“grave threat to our country”Ibid.

Yet Litvinenko decided that BerezovskyDetail of the men’s and Berezovsky’s initial actions from whistle-blowers’ news conference, November 17, 1998; and Goldfarb and Litvinenko, Death of a Dissident, 122–24, 130–34.

Litvinenko and the other whistle-blowersInformation on the thinking of the whistle-blowers from author interview with Yuri Felshtinsky, June 14, 2007.

“thoughtless statements”Goldfarb and Litvinenko, Death of a Dissident, 145.

“a strange-looking man who”Quotes and detail from author interview with Felshtinsky.

“used for settling scores”Alexander Litvinenko’s statement quoted on “How to Poison a Spy,” Panorama, BBC television broadcast, January 22, 2007.

“extraordinary” The Independent (London), November 18, 1998.

“Moscow has talked of” The New York Times, November 21, 1998.

“internal scandals public”Vladimir Putin quoted by Yelena Tregubova in Goldfarb and Litvinenko, Death of a Dissident, 160–61.

“was glad to have me”Quotes and detail from author interview with Felshtinsky. Felshtinsky’s account in general coincides with that presented in Death of a Dissident.

“Berezovsky was winning”Author interview with Felshtinsky.

Felshtinsky’s recollection is thatQuotes and detail from author interview with Felshtinsky.

According to Death of a Dissident Goldfarb and Litvinenko, Death of a Dissident, 219–20.

Not too long after, Natalia LitvinenkoAuthor interview with Natalia Litvinenko.

“You know we have”Detail and quotes from author interview with Felshtinsky. The account does not conflict with Death of a Dissident, which relates Alex Goldfarb’s role in Litvinenko’s flight.

“Tell me Boris, I don’t…”Goldfarb and Litvinenko, Death of a Dissident, 210–11. In an April 24, 2006, interview with the author, Berezovsky said that the book could be regarded as a completely factual account of events in which he was a participant. I regarded the book as one from the perspective of the Berezovsky camp.

“If we don’t go to the American embassy”Quotes and detail on Litvinenko’s escape from author interview with Felshtinsky. The account generally coincides with the Goldfarb account in Death of a Dissident.

Felshtinsky and Goldfarb began instantlyDetail and quotes from author interview with Felshtinsky. Information on Marina Litvinenko’s feelings of betrayal from author interview with Marina Litvinenko, April 24, 2006.

“They’re here already…”Goldfarb and Litvinenko, Death of a Dissident, 11.

“I won’t go alive”Ibid., 12.

“You left Tbilisi”Detail and quotes from author interview with Felshtinsky.

“We can’t be subject”Author interview with Felshtinsky.

Goldfarb left to hisGoldfarb and Litvinenko, Death of a Dissident, 15–18.

Berezovsky put up LitvinenkoDetail on allowance from author interview with Marina Litvinenko.

“quite a positive figure”Quotes and background from author interviews with Oleg Gordievsky, February 7, 2007, and February 27, 2007.

Like Nikolai Khokhlov, GordievskyBackground on the Gordievsky family’s flight to London from “Family Joins K.G.B. Spy in London,” Reuters, September 7, 1991.

“She wanted the money”Detail and quotes from author interview with Gordievsky.

A descendant of czarist-era aristocratsDetail about Klebnikov’s accent from author interview with Maxim Kashulinsky, May 4, 2007.

“We’re fighting for Mother Russia”Song quoted in New York magazine, October 25, 2004.

His family’s Manhattan apartmentAtmosphere of Klebnikov’s upbringing from Otto Pohl, “The Assassination of the Dream,” New York magazine, October 25, 2004; Nicholas Stein, “The American Who Knew Too Much,” Men’s Vogue, August 21, 2006. Klebnikov’s wife, Musa, recommended the two articles to the author as authoritative accounts of her husband’s life.

He visited Institut Le RoseyPaul Klebnikov, Forbes, July 5, 1999.

“a handful of clerics”Paul Klebnikov, Forbes, July 21, 2003.

“a gangster state”Paul Klebnikov, Forbes, November 1, 1999.

“replete with bankrupt companies”Klebnikov, Godfather of the Kremlin, 4.

“If it is hard for westerners”Klebnikov, Godfather of the Kremlin, 6.

“Most journalists think of themselves”James Michaels quoted in Men’s Vogue, August 21, 2006.