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Warning, the following episode contains explicit language and sexual themes.
Listener discretion is advised topping our Worldly today is a tale that seems straight out of a spine novel. So audacious, so horrific, it would have to be a work of fiction, but it's all too true.
This is the tragic story of Alexander Livignanko.
Familiar ma Lietuinian because the olpe mi in Alexander here buship Olkovnik.
In Russian, I have a named Alexander Litvinenko. I am a former KGB FSB officer. My rank lieutenant colonel. My position deputy head of Section Top Secret Department of FSB.
Alexander Livinenko was a former FSB officer who is fighting organized crime. He soon discovered a connection between high ranking officers in the FSB and Russian criminal gangs. When he
began investigating this FSB corruption, he was blocked by Putin. Frustrated, he soon became a whistleblower for the FSB's dirty tricks, their organized crime activity, their secret assassinations, even their supposed involvement in the terrorist apartment bombing it was used to justify at the Second Chechen War.
The former Federal Security Service agent admits he's worried about coming forward with the allegations and says he fears for the life of his wife and child, but Litfonnanko says he decided to come forward because quote, if these people are not stopped, this lawlessness will flood the country.
Livignenko eventually fled Russia England. We shared his secrets work to try and bring down Putin and start protection from the British government. While there he connected with Russian historian Yuri Felshtinsky and together they wrote the book Blowing Up Russia Terror from Within. Delshtinsky recalls the last time he saw Lefnienko in person.
So last time we met in London and there was a memorial service for Annapolitkovsko, which was killed like a week before, and they came slightly earlier. The door was still closed, and I saw Litwinianko from a distance. He was running through me and yelling to me. Yuri I just got British citizenship. Now they will not be able to touch me. And so this was on certains of October and on the first of November he was poisoned.
On the first of November, just after he become a British citizen, he met two former colleagues from Russia's intelligence wealth in a pine bar at the Millennium Hotel. Two days later, he was admitted to his local hospital vomiting and a great pain.
Here's Yuri Felshtinski again with something I never knew about how these international poisoning missions work.
This is very important. You notice probably that every time somebody is poisoned, it's usually like two people or even more involved. And this has a reason the FSB still does not trust those people whom they sent to kill, because the chance that they would defect is very high. Now, that's why you always send them in groups at least two people, and they have to be together all the time.
They sleep in the in one room in the hotel, so they really are not allowed to not to be alone because one is control in the other.
There's one other safeguard that helped keep Litvinenko's assassins from defecting independent in their mission. The fact that they used radioactive polonium two ten, said to be one of the most toxic substances on earth, to do the job.
If they're operating with radio active poisoning, they then they actually are not able to defect because the fs WE will find them very quickly because they are already marked with radiation.
A few days after Litvinenko, the FSB whistleblower, entered the hospital for treatment, Valshtinski spoke with him and Livinenko was feeling optimistic.
Now.
I talked to him by fore several days, soon after the first of November, and he told me that, look, I was poisoned, but I survived, and then after the first ten days his health deteriorated.
Ertoshtinsky, Lievinenko's co writor and friend, shares next explain something that you talk about when covering these poisonings in the news, how unbelievably horrible they are.
He was telling me that, you know, this was so painful that if I have a choice, and Lutwinanko was at one point in Russia are arrested by the government and put in prison for almost a year, and he said, you know, if you give me a choice to spend another year in prison or to go through this poisoning. I would rather spend another year in prison, that's how painful this was ban on twenty of Nowember.
He died in the late afternoon of Thursday, twenty third November. The police confirmed with the Health Protection Agency that a significant quantity of the radio activisor to polonium two, one, zero, two and ten have been found in mister Vinenko's urine.
I asked Kalshtinsky after experiencing all this, what does he think people don't know about Russian intelligence that they need to know?
What people do not really understand that we have the largest special services structure in the world, with the largest budget in the world, and enormous amount of people and tre well, now we do not really know how many people work for the FSB, And so.
We resume Aleiah's story as she's unknowingly about to begin a similar journey with her colleague Sasha uncover corruption in the FSB from within, an investigation that, as history clearly shows, does not usually end well for the agents involved, and this investigation would be no exception.
I had to kill you.
I'm really sorry I had to do it. That I got on my duty thins away. I was old and my god, I got to to you. I had to kill you.
Bs is so much for.
Episode fourteen, Chapter thirty, gathering evidence. It was finally time.
Sasha brought me sleeping pills, which supposed to help me to put Vladimir into long sleep, deep deep sleep.
Lee's mission was the slip sleeping pills into the dinner of her target, Vladimir, leader of one of the most dangerous gangs in the city. While he was knocked out. She planned to photograph the documents in his office for her colleagues in the FSKN, the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia.
It was like a quiet evening. I cooked some dinner and I gave him the pill in the glass of water. Then we went upstairs and I was massaged when rubbing his shoulders when he was like just laying on the side, and I was telling him some kind of like bullshet from the university about teachers. So it was like really slow. There is a technique about a hypnosis. When you want like your target to relax and fall asleep, you put
your target into the trunds. So I did that and Vladimir started to sleep, and I was laying looking at the ceiling, looking at myself and thinking how do I do it? I was waiting till about like one am, so it will be late late night, and very very slowly, almost like a cat, and I walked out from the room into that office room. I took my camera and I took the small flashlight, and I basically photographed all these papers and I just saw like many numbers and
some places and many many different names. And I opened also notebook. I did like all the photos over there with telephone numbers. So I photographed everything, and when I finished, I just returned to bad and I hided my back with the camera like onderneath of the clothes which was on the armchair. Early morning.
We woke up.
Vladimir felt good and he said, oh, I had such a good sleep. Finally, yeah, thanks to me.
The next morning, Aleah prepared to meet with her colleague Sasha and hand over the camera, making sure to download a copy of the files for herself first. They were both new to intelligence work and given this mission by their commander to fail, but inexperience often comes with enthusiasm, and they were succeeding, perhaps too well. For their own safety.
I was in rush to only one thing, which I did. I took the memory card, so I downloaded all the things in my computer. I installed it back to the camera, and I passed the camera to Sasha.
Back at home, Lia sat down at her computer to examine the photograph she'd taken of the documents in Vladimir's office.
And what I've seen there blew my mind. I texted Sasha and I said, I think I found out something important which might be a big explanation in all this mess, and maybe it gives us the light of what just happened with this case. Let's meet at the same place tomorrow. He said, yeah, let's do it. And he didn't come. He didn't show up, and I was really worried. I didn't know exactly what to do. I called him, he didn't pick up. I texted, he didn't reply.
When aliyahs Vladimir later that day, she tried to conceal her worries about Sasha and what may have happened to him.
So Vladimir he asked me, like, I said, everything okay, And I said, like, no, everything is okay, And I try not to be worried about Sasha, and that day I heard the conversation between Vladimir and his army friend and it was a big argument, and army friend was saying to Vladimir, we've been losing many many drugs recently and this is not good. I'm responsible in front of these people in Afghanistan and if something goes wrong, de will cut off my head, not yours. And Vladimir said
it won't happen. I will protect you. Everything will be all right. But the conversation finished on the note where I understood that the army friend wasn't really satisfied. I reached out Sasha again the next day and he came to that place where I usually met and I was like almost cremated him, like I'm like, what the hell you didn't pick up the phone? You like freaked me out.
I thought something happened to you. And he said, the reason why I couldn't contact you is because for the whole night and day I was spying on our commander. And he'll be shocked to what I will tell you right now. So in these documents which I photographed, there was a few times written the name of our commander and Sasha when he was spying on our commander. Our
commander had a meeting with Vladimir's friend. Then he said, why our commander sent us to this drug operation and we arrested people and we confiscated drugs, and yet now he's speaking with this guy. I asked Sashall if he has done any photos or anything like that. So apparently he did, which is good. And also we had this
document stating that our commander was involved. So more or less I had some evidences, some compromat, let's say, to our commander, and I started to dig in more, and eventually in my head I created a plan how to save myself and Vladimir out of all this big mess.
Chapter thirty one, This sting. The next day, Eliah met with her friend Anna, who is part of the gang's entourage, to see if she knew anything more about what was going on.
She said, the man with whom she was dating, he said to her that the whole gang had started to be divided, so slowly the army front wore bringing his people together to create kind of a good confrontation towards Vladimir's people. I felt sorrow because I started to realize that there is something going on behind his back, and he doesn't even know, you know, like I wanted to kind of like protect him.
This is probably not standard practice for an undercover agent, but this is what happens when he mix love and war. As much as the state would like to turn people into robots or at least sociopaths without empathy, they're still human at the end of the day, and a human
connection usually wins over a work order. When a Liah met with Vladimir next, she tried to find a way to hint to him that his army friend, his second in command, who has saved his life during the war, might be plotting to betray him.
I tried to start the conversation and I asked him, like, do you trust your friend? And he said, yeah, I trust him. He saved my life. I owe him for that. I understood that moment that it would be just almost impossible to tell him anything. I thought, like, you know, I will find a way how to make it write.
So next day we met with Sasha again and he gave me some photos, like there were like a couple photos of our commanders standing with this army friend, and he told me, I am worried about my life he said, I know too much now, and you do. And he said, if something happens with me, promised that you will take care of this information and you will make sure that
he will get what he deserve. And that moment I remembered about colnel because I remember that dinner when a first time met my future commander, and I remembered them sitting and drinking vodka and just having this kind of look to each other, and something told me that all of them involved in this thing, something like it's just like a gut feeling, but yet without evidences, it's just a thought.
Leah told Sasha about the colonel, her abuser at the military academy and the commander's close friend, and asked if it was possible to see if the colonel was involved with the gang at all. Sasha replied that they should just keep taking down the trafficking network and watching everyone closely, and eventually the truth would be revealed.
He said, like, let's see what would be the react once we know, we will understand who is really involved in there and who is not.
They decided to rate another one of the spots out of Vladimir's map. They timed the operation to take place during a celebration that the gang was planning for a member's birthday. This way Eliah could watch everyone's responses.
Then Sasha can arrest them and we will see how like other people in this chain, how will they respond. So that day we organized everything. I remember even like what I was worrying that day.
That afternoon, Aliyah's colleague Sasha showed up with their team as a suspected drug dealing operation, and as usual, sent in an informant to buy drugs with marked money. Meanwhile, Aliyah was with Vladimir at the gang member's birthday celebration.
So everybody was drinking for the house of the birthday person, and suddenly the army guy stand up and he leaves. Somebody called him. I opened my back and I texted Sasha that the army guy just left. Vladimir is here. I'm just like I'm controlling the whole inform of situation. I will text you what's going on. He texted me, It's okay, we work on it. I will text you later. And I never heard from him since that moment. So I'm sitting there. Vladimir is like stressed. He receiving some calls.
He replies, but it's all kind of like yes no, yes, no, and I couldn't understand what's going on. I'm just sitting but I'm going to the toilet. Text Sasha, Hey, what's up? Text me? And no answer. Came back again from the toilet, sitting again with Vladimir. Everybody drinking and so on. I couldn't eat a drink. I was just sitting there and
pretending that I'm okay and I'm smiling. Go to the toilet, text Sasha, no messages, back, coming back again, sitting stressing again and again and again and again, and I had like this kind of feeling inside of me where you know, something is like not good. We were driving home and Vladimir was sitting with come was probably the same face because like we didn't really talk.
I was just like.
Opening my bag and trying to see the telephone, my small matarola if there are any message from Sasha, and it wasn't. It was empty. You just drove back. When we came to the city, Vladimir voiced like intense and I said, you know, like I don't feel good. I wanted to just like lay down. Can you drop me home?
And He's like yeah, of course. Besides, I want to check something too, So he dropped me home and I didn't call to the commander obviously, and I didn't call anyone apart from one person who was in our team. I texted him. He didn't reply. I called him. He picked up the call and I said like, hey, hey, it's me. What's going on? And I heard his voice was almost like broken. His voice sounded like so far away, And I asked him, do you know where it is? Sasha?
He said yes, said so what happened? Can you tell me? He said, so, we sent our drug bait guy who does all this transactions with the mark money, and when we entered the house, we entered the main door, he said like there was like few Afghani men and they started to shoot, and Sasha was the first who entered as the commander of the team, and he said he was the one who received the first bullet. And I
asked him, Sasha always worrying the bullet protection jacket. He said yes, he does, and I said, so is he okay? He said no, And I said, like where was the bullet proof jacket? And he didn't reply to me, and I said, like, where was the bullet proof jacket. I was almost like screaming, and he said, he's in the the mark. I said, what's going on with the commander?
What did he say? He said, like he was like really pissed off, and he said that he's all going to put us to jail because they did the whole operation without his permission. I standed there at the room and I just couldn't. I couldn't do anything, and I, you know, like this feeling where I started to hate, like the strong like anger, the anger that he's just not here anymore, and the guilt.
Leah felt that the commander or someone must have told the drug dealers to expect a raid and to expect impunity, otherwise they would have had their guns out and started firing immediately.
And I just hated I would commander so much. I felt like he betrayed Sasha, He betrayed his own people for his own good. It was a very dark, dark day. I remember Sasha told me the last time I saw him, if something happened to me, promise me that you will get the justice and you will finish this case. And I gave him this word. And I had almost like every single evidences towards my commander. I had voters him and the criminal leader, this army friend of Vladimir I
had handwritten name on the papers. And I was thinking, okay, so if I will have all these documents and all these evidences, whom do I go to prove it that my commander is criminal? And there was like one main commander who was the general of the whole state. The next morning and a Monday, I called to the receptionist of the general. I said to her, like, I have some information about the case. I have some evidences. I
need to speak with the commander. And she said to me, oh, like, you can pass me information, I'll give it to him. I said, like, no, I need to meet him in person. I cannot give this information to anyone apart from him. She said, I will speak with him, and just basically, like in a few minutes, she called me back. She said when can you come in? And said I can come in, like in thirty minutes. She said, he will be waiting for you. I got dressed, I put the
files into USB. I took the USB. I took these photos which Ash gave me. I was just thinking, if I can't really trust but I wanted just to understand if he knows anything or not, then if he's really involved or not. So I came into the main building, beautiful with the big columns, and I walked through their security check. I said, I have an appointment with the general. They let me in. I went upstairs to the second floor.
I came to the reception and there was a woman about forty five years old, and she was having this strict face. I called the military people do and she said, he's waiting for you.
To die For continues in episode fifteen.
He told me that this is the end, this is the last moment of your life. And when he told that, he punched me from this side so hard that it just crushed my bone.
To Die For is a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with iHeart Podcasts. The show is hosted and written by me Neil Strauss, with additional writing assistants by Tristan Bankston. Executive producers are myself, Donald Albright, and Payne Lindsay. For iHeart Podcasts, executive producers are Matt Frederick and Alex Williams. Lead producer and editor is Tristan Bankston. Additional editing by Miles Clark and Christian Brown. Supervising producer Tracy Kaplan. Consultants
include Nushin, Valiza day, Chelsea Gooden and Jamie Albright. Artwork by Byron McCoy, original music by Makeup and Vanity Set, mixed and mastered by Dayton Cole. Our theme song is Killer Shangli Law by Psychotic Beats featuring Pattiamore. Special thanks to Aren Rosenbaub and the team at Uta Beck Media and Marketing Aarren Siegel, Becky Jensen, the Nord Group, Meredith Stedman, Rose Baruch and alex Vespustad.