Photographs 4 of 4

Here are photographs of names that keep coming up in the investigation of Alexander Litvinenko's murder, or victims of previous poisonings and suspicious deaths. To read the biographies of these individuals, click on their names.


Elena Collongues-Popova Elena Collongues-Popova Born-1954, Russia, she worked for years in silence, as the financial architect of parts of the early empire built by Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, who controlled Yukos, the giant Russian oil company. But she has since turned on Khodorkovsky after French tax police fined her roughly $15 million over actions she said she undertook on behalf of his early business dealings. In 2005 she met with Yevgeny Limarev and Roger Kinsbourg in Paris, trying to obtain information about Alexei Golubovich, particularly bribes that he might have paid to Lithuanian officials to get control of the state-owned Maziekiu Nafta oil refinery. [photo by Lucy Komisar, thekomisarscoop.com]

Yuri Golubev Born 1941-Russia, during the period 1970-1990 Golubev worked at the Ministry of Foreign Trade in the Soviet Union. In 1990 he started to work in oil business. Later from 2000 to 2005 Golubev co-founded Yukos. He headed up the company before Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and the company's growth is connected with his name. Golubev was found dead in his London apartment January 7, 2007. The reason of his death is supposed to be heart failure, though founders of the Menatep group, are suspect of this diagnosis.


Alexei Golubovich Born 1965, Russia, Golubovich held the posts of head of planning at the Menatep Group and of deputy chairman of the board at Menatep Bank prior to 1996. In the years 1998 to 2000 he worked as head of strategic planning and corporate finance at the Yukos oil company. He left Russia for Great Britain in 2003 fearing arrest at home. Currently, Golubovich holds the post of the chairman of board of directors at JSC Russian Investors. Russian prosecutors believe Golubovich played a key role in financial wrongdoing at Yukos and Menatep. Along with Yukos founders Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, currently serving lengthy jail terms in Russia, Golubovich is charged with money laundering and concealing illegally derived income abroad.

Alexander Konanykhine Born-1967 Russia, He blew the whistle on the corrupt, KGB-sponsored figures plundering Russia, particularly the banking industry. Konanykhine fled to the US in 1992. Initially he asked the FBI and the Russian government to investigate his former business, the All-Russian Exchange Bank, which had been seized from him by KGB-connected Russian mobsters. The FBI informed Konanykhine in 1995 that the Russian mob had issued a contract on his life. However, shortly after that warning, the FBI began collaborating in a Russian-based investigation of him on charges of embezzlement. In June 1996, officials from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), in a joint operation with agents of the renamed KGB, arrested Konanykhine and raided his apartment in Washington's Watergate complex. The KGB accused him of falsifying his employment history, thereby invalidating his visa. This cleared the way for Konanykhine's expulsion to Russia, where he faced imprisonment, torture and death. Cozy With the KGB, by Wm. N. Grigg, The New American, September 29, 1997

Platon Lebedev Born-1956, Russia, he is the former director of Group MENATEP, the controlling shareholder of YUKOS Oil Company. He was arrested July 2003 on charges of fraud and tax evasion in relation to the privatization of Apatit, a fertilizer business. He was found guilty and is currently serving an 8-year sentence in a maximum security prison in the Polar Ural region of Siberia.

Igor Ponomarev Born 1941-Russia, representative of Russia in the International Maritime Organization (IMO), died in London October 30, 2006, after he collapsed at home after a night at the opera. Ponomarev was attending a theatre performance when suddenly felt badly, and a friend revealed he had been “gasping for water” — a symptom of radiation poisoning. A heart attack was declared the reason of his death, though Ponomarev had no autopsy in the UK, due diplomatic status, and his body was quickly flown to Russia. Ponomarev’s family was shocked, as they were not aware of any heart problems. Experts believe the thirst was consistent with poisoning by polonium-210, the radioactive substance that killed Alexander Litvinenko, on November 23, 2006. Ponomarev’s death came hours before he was due to meet former KGB agent Litvinenko’s Italian contact Mario Scaramella, with whom he wanted to go to the appointment with the Russian ex-security officer.