‘I will not rest until the murderers are brought to justice’
When the couple married in 1994 neither could have ever imagined the persecution and tragedy that lay ahead.
At that time Alexander was a senior figure in the FSB, the KGB’s successor, responsible for investigating terrorism and gang crime. Marina was a qualified planning engineer but chose to teach choreography instead.
They met at her 31st birthday party.
But that year, a decision to join an investigation into a plot to kill an entrepreneur would set the government agent on a course to his death.
The entrepreneur was Boris Berezovsky and within six years the family, now with a young son, would be forced to flee Russia.
After several years, those investigating the plot were themselves allegedly ordered to kill Berezovsky because he was a political embarrassment.
In November 1998, Alexander sealed his fate by going public with extraordinary claims of a state-sponsored murder plot.
The scandal led to the resignation of the FSB director. Vladimir Putin, future Russian president, took his place.
Alexander was sacked and arrested and over the next two years attempts were made to put him on trial twice on charges of exceeding his official powers. Eventually he was released on bail and the family fled to Britain to claim asylum.
Today, Marina has Putin firmly in her sights as a key player behind the appalling murder of her husband.
She remains in close contact with Berezovsky, also in exile in London. They are founding members of the Litvinenko Justice Foundation that is lobbying the British government to pressure the Russians. In an emotional open letter written to Putin earlier this year, she urged him to co-operate with the British inquiry.
She told the Russian president if he had nothing to hide he would welcome a thorough investigation.
“I can assure you I will not rest until the murderers are brought to justice,” she said.
