Akhmed Zakayev listened intently as his friend Alexander Litvinenko read out the names in an alleged Russian hit-list of political dissidents. Mr Zakayev, a Chechen separatist, had just picked up Mr Litvinenko in central London and was driving him home to Muswell Hill, north London, where they were neighbours. Hours earlier, on 1 November, Mr Litvinenko had been handed documents by Italian investigator Mario Scaramella at the now infamous Itsu sushi restaurant in Piccadilly. The documents, it has been alleged, revealed information about the assassination of journalist and Putin detractor Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow in October. They contained a list of enemies of the Kremlin, allegedly targeted for elimination by Russian secret services. The list included the names of Mr Scaramella and Mr Litvinenko.
As the pair headed towards north London, Mr Litvinenko, a former member of the Russian secret services, FSB, told Mr Zakayev he too was on the list. "I was not surprised," said Mr Zakayev, the foreign minister of the Chechen government in exile and a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin. "I know they are coming for me."