Since Soviet times, Sochi has been a holiday destination, both for the Politburo and for the ordinary citizen. There is a pebbly beach; a botanical garden; pleasant cafés and hotels along a sinuous promenade. The sanatoria have beguiling names – Rainbow, Golden Sheaf, Zhemchuzhina (Pearl) – but are typically squat, communist-era rectangles. In the afternoons guests plough up and down azure pools; by evening prostitutes sit in the lobby.
This traveller had no time to linger. After arriving in Sochi he was on the move again. A steamer shuttled between the ports of the Black Sea, once part of a single empire, and now divided between Ukraine, Russia and Georgia. The boat was heading to the Georgian town of Batumi. He got on last and handed his internal Russian passport to a customs officer. Plus a bribe of $10. In return, the officer agreed to glance away from a list of persons forbidden from leaving the Russian Federation.
The boat set off – Sochi, with its twisting green headland and brown-roofed hillside villas, diminishing in the distance. For Russians, Georgia is still the near abroad; only an internal passport is needed for entry. The figure disembarked at the port of Batumi and travelled directly to Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital. The first part of Litvinenko’s plan to escape had worked. But, as he knew, it was only a matter of time before the FSB noticed his disappearance, and – vengefully – came after him.
A week earlier, while in Moscow, Litvinenko had discussed his escape with his friend Yuri Felshtinsky. Felshtinsky, a successful historian and author, emigrated from the USSR in 1978 and settled in the US. He returned to Russia in 1998 to write Berezovsky’s biography, at Berezovsky’s request. The book never happened. The oligarch was an elusive subject. Felshtinsky may have failed to extract Berezovsky’s life story from him but he did become a member of his informal team. They disagreed about Putin, however, who Berezovsky insisted was ‘my friend’. (Felshtinsky predicted that future president Putin would toss Berezovsky in jail.)
During a state trip with Berezovsky to Baku, Felshtinsky and Litvinenko had shared a plane and a room. They got on. According to Felshtinsky, Litvinenko was a good storyteller who would talk for hours. As a KGB and FSB officer, Litvinenko had been and was still forbidden from fraternising with foreigners; this was his first sustained encounter with anyone with experience of the west. By 2000 it was clear that Felshtinsky’s forebodings about Putin were correct, and that Litvinenko’s troubles were just beginning. Felshtinsky agreed to help his friend escape, with Berezovsky’s considerable financial assistance.
Their plan went smoothly. Felshtinsky flew from Boston to Tbilisi and found Litvinenko alive and well. Litvinenko relayed a message to his wife instructing her to buy a new mobile phone. He called her on this number and told her to take a package holiday to somewhere in Western Europe. Two days later she flew out of Moscow with their son Anatoly. Their destination was Spain’s Costa del Sol.
In Tbilisi, Litvinenko had no clear idea what to do next. He grew nervy and restless: instead of staying in his hotel room out of sight he wandered round the town, with its churches and old quarter. At one point the local militia almost arrested him, a suspicious Russian with no clear purpose in the city. Litvinenko’s best option, he and Felshtinksy agreed, was to seek political asylum in the United States. But when Felshtinsky called in at the US embassy, desk officers showed no interest in his case.
To go further Litvinenko would need a full travel document: the FSB had stolen his international passport. Luckily, he had allies in high places. Berezovsky’s business partner Patarkatsishvili was Georgian, extremely rich, and friends with Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgia’s then president. Patarkatsishvili arranged a Georgian passport for Litvinenko. The passport was genuine but the details inside it were false. Litvinenko got a new name: Mr Chernishev.
In Moscow, meanwhile, the FSB realised that its troublesome former agent had escaped. One of Litvinenko’s ex-colleagues, Andrei Ponkin, called up Felshtinsky, saying he was ‘concerned’ for Litvinenko’s well-being. Had he seen him? Felshtinsky claimed to be in Boston. Ponkin kept calling. Berezovsky suggested they go to Turkey and sent his private jet. The two men left Tbilisi – Litvinenko going through passport control as Mr Chernishev – and flew to Antalya on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.
By now Litvinenko had realised that his exit from Russia was irreversible. Returning home would mean instant arrest. ‘I analysed everything. It was clear my fate was decided in Russia,’ he said. He rang Marina in Spain and laid out their options in stark terms. They could all go back to Moscow. But from prison Litvinenko would be unable to protect her and Anatoly. Marina believed that after a stint in jail her husband would eventually get out. Litvinenko demurred, telling her: ‘I will never leave prison. They will kill me.’
Marina agreed and flew to Turkey with Anatoly on Berezovsky’s plane. The Litvinenkos were reunited in Antalya but their problem remained: where could they go next? They knew no foreign languages, and practically nothing of the western world. Marina felt lonely and disorientated. Litvinenko was nervous that the FSB was closing in. His friends began to worry that he might do something outlandish.
Berezovsky called Alex Goldfarb, his long-time aide, in New York. It was 4 a.m. there. Goldfarb was a microbiologist by training and US citizen who had emigrated from the Soviet Union in the seventies. He had worked as an academic, as a journalist, and for the philanthropist George Soros, administering a programme to award grants to hard-up Russian scientists. Goldfarb resembled a New York professor – round metal glasses, beard, corduroy jacket, slightly dishevelled appearance. He had a shining intelligence, easy manner, and superlative English. I would later get to know him well.
Goldfarb also possessed a cool head, invaluable in this moment of crisis. A couple of days after Berezovsky’s summons, he arrived in Antalya. He rented a hire car and the four of them – Goldfarb, Litvinenko, his wife and son – drove to the Turkish capital Ankara, Goldfarb’s wife Svetlana travelling by plane. Felshtinsky had returned to the States.
While in New York, Goldfarb had called a staffer at the US security council who dealt with Russia. He had told his contact he planned to bring a Russian defector to the US’s Turkish embassy. The staffer was appalled and told him: ‘Don’t do this. You’re not a pro. It’s dangerous! Don’t even think about it.’
Undeterred, the party turned up at the US mission in Ankara. The embassy had been pre-warned. A consular official checked their documents, took their cell phones and escorted them to a secure sound-proof glass room guarded by marines – the ‘bubble’. Inside the bubble were two representatives of the CIA and a video-link with a Russian-speaker patched in from the United States.
The US agents interviewed Litvinenko on his own for three hours. He told them his story: his feud with Putin, the trumped-up charges, jail. The officials were non-committal. It was uncertain if the US would grant Litvinenko asylum. In the meantime he would have to wait. It was dark when Goldfarb collected Litvinenko and took him back to their hotel. The US embassy refused to provide security. At this point relations between Putin and the outgoing Clinton administration were warm. The White House viewed the Russian leader as fresh and dynamic – as an ally and a democrat. The Litvinenko case may have seemed like an ill-timed throwback to the Cold War.
By now, Litvinenko was convinced that the FSB was on his trail. Its next move, he thought, would be to kidnap him and to render him back to Moscow. That night, the Litvinenkos plus Goldfarb made a covert exit from their hotel, whizzing out of the underground car park. They drove in blackness to Istanbul. For security reasons they switched off their cell phones. The next afternoon Goldfarb found a message from the US embassy. He called back. There was an answer from Washington, which said sorry, we can’t help you, good luck.