Putin opponent who died mysteriously had feared for his life

Former bodyguard claims Russian exile’s death in London bears hallmarks of a state-backed execution

AN OPPONENT of Vladimir Putin found dead in his London home this week was in such fear for his life that he had prepared an escape route and a hideaway, an ex-bodyguard claimed.

Nikolai Glushkov, 68, a close associate of Boris Berezovsky, the late Russian oligarch, was found dead at his home on Monday in unexplained cir- cumstances.

Counter-terrorism police are investigating amid reports he may have been strangled. Last night police appeared to be ready to dig up the garden of his home in New Malden, southwest London.

A former bodyguard who worked for Mr Berezovsky said he knew Mr Glushkov was “extremely nervous” about his own safety and feared he might be targeted by the Russian state.

He told The Daily Telegraph that the former director of Aeroflot, the Russian state airline, had already prepared an escape route and a hideaway.

The French security agent, who spent more than a decade running a team of bodyguards to protect Mr Berezovsky, said he had met Mr Glushkov, right, several times after his exile to the UK in 2006. He said his death bore “all the hallmarks of a Russian statesponsored hit”.

The bodyguard, who asked only to be identified by the initials RG, said: “Boris helped him find a place to recover from Russian prison, and then we were asked to prepare for the possibility he would need to be sheltered.

“When we were informed things were getting a little tense, we were told to prepare a getaway for Mr Glushkov. Boris spoke openly that the orders came directly from Putin to eliminate him and his friends.”

The bodyguard spoke about the measures taken to preserve his former employer’s life, measures which ultimately failed when Mr Berezovsky was found hanged in his home in Surrey in 2013. “We had Geiger counters which we used to check for radioactivity,” he said, “on chairs, his bed, his office, when we returned from somewhere.

“We followed a strict protocol for eating and drinking. For drinks in restaurants, we chose the bottles and opened them, not waiters, at the last second.

“Poison was a potential threat, naturally. At restaurants, we kept a close eye on waiters and the choice of food – particularly after the death of Alexander Litvinenko.”

He said to protect Mr Berezovsky from an attack via a nerve agent, unknown people were kept out of his inner circle. Eight agents always slept at his home and he travelled in an armoured car.

But his elaborate security team diminished when Mr Berezovsky ran into financial trouble. The bodyguard said he is certain his former boss was killed on Mr Putin’s orders, even though the cause of death was registered officially as suicide.

The bodyguard said: “I spoke to him on the phone the day before his death. We talked about a lot of things, and he said to me, ‘I’m going to keep on fighting for the truth to come out – the truth about Putin’s violence and the death of Litvinenko.’

“Knowing the person and how combative he was, it’s impossible that he took his own life.”

Suspicion also surrounds the death of another associate of both Mr Glushkov and Mr Berezovsky. Badri Patarkatsishvili, 52, from Georgia, died at his Surrey home in 2008, following an apparent heart attack, two years after Mr Litvinenko, the former FSB spy, was murdered using the radioactive substance polonium.

Andrey Lugovoy, the chief suspect, was Mr Patarkatsishvili’s chauffeur and was also a security adviser to Mr Glushkov. He is now a Russian MP and ardent supporter of Russia’s president.

“All these deaths bear the hallmarks of Putin, or networks under his control,” the bodyguard said.

“It tells all former agents and any opponents of Putin firstly to beware. Nobody is untouchable anywhere in the world. The second is political – to show his power and that he can do what he likes where he likes.”