I didn’t have a chance to meet Sasha in person, but we kept in touch regularly by phone and via the Internet. Litvinenko’s book “The FSB is Exploding Russia,” published in 2002 in co-authorship with Yu. Felshtinsky, was received ambiguously by readers. For many, the very idea that certain forces in Russia were capable of any crimes to achieve political goals seemed absurd. Events in subsequent years confirmed that the current regime in the country will stop at nothing to silence its detractors. It was then that my first contact with Litvinenko took place. I read with interest his emotionally rich, sharply critical publications. Some of them, which appeared on the Internet shortly before his death, contained, in my opinion, offensive attacks against the personality of the current Russian president. I told Sasha about this on the phone and advised him to be careful. Obviously, by that time, the organization of reprisals against Sasha was already in full swing. An honest, courageous officer, Litvinenko did not tolerate the hypocrisy, servility, and corruption characteristic of some of his former colleagues who had seized power in Russia. It was they who killed him. Oleg Kalugin

On August 7, 2008, a collection of articles and interviews with Alexander Litvinenko, “Political Emigrant,” was published. For the publication of the book, we are grateful to the president of the APIA Foundation, former political prisoner, academician, writer and poet David Kudykov.