- há 2 dias
US intelligence prompts the team to investigate Kremlin involvement in the death of a Russian whistleblower in Surrey; tthe attempted murder of a Russian spy in Salisbury thrusts the investigation into the international spotlight.
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00:00What was Alexander Parapolichny?
00:06So, Parapolichny is...
00:10Okay, so Parapolichny is a story that basically...
00:16It has consumed a large part of our lives for the past few years.
00:19The U.S. intelligence community
00:27I was recording a report about the murders of Russians.
00:30and assessing the likelihood of Kremlin involvement in their deaths.
00:36The Parapolichny case had a high rating.
00:39of having been requested by the Kremlin.
00:44With Parapolichny's case,
00:46We were concerned that there would be a flood of justice.
00:50if this information was not known.
00:54What was the switch?
00:56It's not us, this group of journalists, who are looking at this.
00:59It's the U.S. intelligence community.
01:01And that was the moment I thought,
01:02type, type,
01:04We're really onto something.
01:11A murder investigation
01:13It is launched upon the death of another Russian or Briton.
01:29He told his sister the night before he died.
01:33If something happens to me in the next two weeks,
01:35This will not be an accident.
01:36Mom, I don't feel like my mother, I don't feel like my mother.
01:38Jumps like grubs,
01:40Pules don't tear,
01:41frothy whites,
01:41They told me to give it to them.
01:43Pusos, you damned ones,
01:44gangsta, right, right, right?
01:45Tense, you bastards,
01:46I peed in Superpais.
01:47It's not time to die,
01:48It's not time to die.
01:49It's not time to die.
01:50Pus, pus, pus.
01:52London is levitation in the land of shame.
01:55It's not time to die,
01:57It's not time to die.
01:58It's not time to die.
01:58pus, pus.
01:59If you are dealing with someone who has a very suspicious record,
02:04Someday he'll come back to haunt you.
02:06What is that?
02:08What is that?
02:10What is that?
02:12What is that?
02:14The number of deaths in Surrey, or whether it is not, is very high.
02:20It's not a large population, it's not a large landmass.
02:25The risk of death in Surrey, or at other times, is not high.
02:31It's not a large population, it's not a large mass.
02:35Obviously, they are clear dead.
02:37People who can be found on the street, who could have been hit by a car.
02:42People who, first and foremost, seem to have taken ownership of their own bodies.
02:47And then, there is a death of death, where there is no cause or reason.
02:55A news of Mr. Peripolich's death came into a special branch
02:59because of the fact that he was a Russian who had moved into the area.
03:05The fact of the matter remains that what detectives needed to deal with
03:09was how he came to be found dead.
03:13With the Peripolichny case,
03:33that one was the one we were racing against time to get out.
03:37And that was because the inquiry was about to start.
03:41The initial interest in the death of Alexander Peripolichny
03:46really blew up.
03:47People were questions asking about whether Peripolichny
03:49had been poisoned.
03:51I wanted to investigate what Peripolichny had been doing
03:54just before his death.
03:56So that's when I turned to the chief antagonist of Vladimir Putin.
04:00If you were to ask my friends
04:02to describe Bill Browder, me,
04:05in one sentence,
04:06the answer would be that I'm Putin's number one enemy.
04:11I was running the largest investment fund in Russia.
04:14I was expelled from Russia
04:17and declared a threat to national security.
04:20They deported me from Russia to the UK.
04:23When the Russians turn on you,
04:24they don't tend to do so mildly.
04:26They tend to do so with extreme prejudice.
04:29Vladimir Putin, I believe,
04:30to be the richest man in the world.
04:32The purpose of Putin's regime
04:33has been to commit terrible crimes
04:36in order to get that money.
04:37Putin needs to keep everybody
04:40absolutely terrified of him.
04:42And he doesn't have to kill everybody.
04:43He just has to kill a few people
04:44and make it so clear
04:46that terrible things will come to you
04:48if you cross Putin.
04:52In the summer of 2010,
04:55I was putting together YouTube videos
04:56about corrupt police officers.
05:00We focused on exposing crimes
05:02committed by the police officers
05:04and the tax officers
05:04and how much money they got.
05:06Everybody thought we were just
05:07the greatest thing since sliced bread.
05:08Wow, you're going after the bad guys.
05:10One day, my colleague,
05:12Jameson Firestone,
05:13got an unsolicited email
05:14from Alexander Peripolichny,
05:17who claimed that he had information,
05:20bank statements
05:21of a tax official
05:22who was in the business
05:24of authorizing illegal tax refunds.
05:27The tax official authorized
05:29the largest illegal tax refund
05:31in the history of Russia.
05:33The information was as good
05:35as anything we'd ever gotten
05:36and as a consequence
05:38as anything we'd ever gotten,
05:39a real smoking gun.
05:42But the Russians,
05:44They're playing, you know.
05:45three-dimensional chess over there.
05:48We didn't know whether
05:49This was a setup.
05:50whether this guy was for real.
05:52We didn't know whether this was
05:53somewhere of where they were
05:55going to try to hurt us.
06:01Bill said,
06:02What do you want to do?
06:04I said, you know,
06:04I want to meet him.
06:05He said, do you really want to meet him?
06:06It could be dangerous.
06:06I said, we really need to meet him.
06:08I really want to meet him.
06:10We've been threatened
06:11a million times already.
06:12You know,
06:12hopefully this isn't going to end
06:13in violence of some kind.
06:17When Jamie went to that meeting,
06:19we had a whole bunch of
06:21plainclothes bodyguards
06:23scattered around the place.
06:25We have very, very serious
06:27concerns for our safety.
06:29This is after Liefenenko
06:31was poisoned.
06:32I'm not drinking any water
06:33or eating anything.
06:36And they're like,
06:36And if you scratch your head,
06:37if you go like this, right,
06:38all hell is going to break loose
06:40and, like, my team is just going
06:41to get you the hell out of there.
06:43This guy walks in
06:45and he introduces himself
06:47Alexander.
06:51Alexander Peripolichny
06:52was a money manager.
06:54He was a money launderer.
06:55He was a financier in Russia.
06:59He was part of the fraud
07:01that he ended up exposing.
07:05He had fallen out
07:06with the people
07:07He had managed the money for.
07:09And they threatened him
07:10with various criminal cases
07:12in Russia
07:12if he didn't return the money.
07:15And so he fled to the UK.
07:17He got in touch with us.
07:18His logic was that
07:20if he exposed his enemies,
07:21that would get him off the hook.
07:23And so he gave us the information
07:24on the illegal tax refund.
07:27And I said, you know,
07:28You've given me this stuff.
07:30What do you want?
07:31He said, I want you to make a movie
07:32and expose the tax inspectors.
07:35The refund was made to three companies
07:38that police officers working
07:40with organized criminals
07:41stole from my client,
07:43The Hermit.
07:43This video,
07:44it went viral inside of Russia
07:46and outside of Russia.
07:48Alexander Peripolichny
07:49blew the whistle
07:50on a massive Russian
07:51government-linked fraud.
07:53and he handed over evidence
07:55of Kremlin complicity
07:56and a huge money laundering scandal.
07:58We knew he was talking
08:00to the Russians
08:00and they were threatening him
08:01with all sorts of criminal investigations
08:03and asking for like a million dollars
08:05or something to close it.
08:06But we were shocked
08:07when he died.
08:08Peripolichny had threats
08:22leveled against him.
08:25He was afraid for his life.
08:27His name was found
08:27on a Russian hit list.
08:38The Russian businessman
08:44Alex Peripolichny
08:45was found dead.
08:46Sources have told the BBC
08:47He'd had a medical checkup.
08:49months before
08:50No problems had been found.
08:52He was just 44.
08:55The police,
08:56when they found his body that day,
08:58almost immediately
09:00decided it was
09:02a non-suspicious death.
09:04Police couldn't have been more clear.
09:06There was no foul play.
09:07He died of natural causes.
09:08causes.
09:10When they arrived at the police
09:11did not treat his death
09:13as suspicious.
09:14I believe it was a full,
09:17open, diligent investigation
09:20and everyone on that investigation
09:22would have been determined
09:23to the best of their ability
09:24to come up with answers.
09:26We have Gold Committee minutes
09:28which show senior officers
09:30telling the investigating officers
09:31at the time
09:32to make this a non-issue.
09:34Telling them that there is
09:35ambient interest in this case
09:36at a government level.
09:37telling them to keep their statements
09:39to the media bland.
09:42There was pressure
09:43on the officers involved
09:44in that case
09:44not to inflame speculation
09:46about Peripolichny's death.
09:48The fact of the matter was
09:49that at that moment in time
09:51there wasn't anything
09:53to suggest that the death
09:54I was suspicious.
09:55so it was kind of managing expectations
09:58around some sort of media frenzy
10:00happening.
10:04The police lost key evidence
10:06that limited the scope
10:07of the investigation
10:08and what could be done.
10:10Police evidence discs
10:11containing critical digital information
10:13from Peripolichny's computer
10:14went missing.
10:16Not only the original evidence disc
10:17went missing
10:18but the backup copy
10:19also went missing.
10:21And they quickly said
10:23We don't see anything.
10:23suspicious here
10:24There was nothing wrong.
10:28There was all sorts of evidence
10:30that Peripolichny was a man
10:31with a target on his back.
10:33The man went out
10:34and he took 8 million pounds
10:35worth of life insurance out.
10:37You don't do that
10:38you don't do that
10:39if you don't think
10:41somebody might whack you.
10:44His insurance company
10:45didn't want to pay out
10:45the policy.
10:47They requested
10:48clinical investigation
10:49into the contents
10:50of his stomach.
10:51The police sent this
10:53to a special forensics laboratory
10:55at a place called
10:55Kew Gardens.
11:02Plant toxicology experts
11:03from the Royal Botanic
11:05Gardens in Kew
11:06were asked to help
11:07determine the
11:08cause of death.
11:11Kew Gardens
11:12started as a garden
11:14in the mid-1750s.
11:17It became a real center
11:19for what term
11:20plant taxonomy
11:21which is basically
11:23the study of plant names
11:25how to name them
11:26studying their distribution.
11:29We've actually got
11:29More scientists here
11:30than we have
11:31horticultural staff
11:32so it's really
11:33a research institute
11:35with an attached garden.
11:37We were contacted
11:39and asked if we could help.
11:42We had no preconceived ideas.
11:45We were all really looking for
11:46could he have been given
11:48something that was a toxin.
11:50When the specimens come in
11:52we access the samples.
11:54we could see something that might have had the iron
11:59of an alkaloid from galcemium.
12:05Galcemium is a herb that occurs
12:07mainly in parts of Asia.
12:10Monique Simmons examined
12:12the contents of his stomach
12:13and gathered that his stomach
12:15might have contained traces of galcemium
12:17which is a deadly plant poison
12:19known to be used by assassins.
12:23It attacks the respiratory system
12:25And it acts quite quickly.
12:28Its nickname is heartbreak grass
12:30because it's known to trigger cardiac arrest
12:31which is exactly what
12:33Alexander Peripolichny died of.
12:34That discovery
12:37suddenly drew a huge amount
12:39of attention to the case.
12:40Traces of an extremely toxic plant
12:42in his stomach
12:43appear to have been found.
12:45There are many
12:46calling foul play
12:48and looking for answers.
12:48The days leading up
12:58to Peripolichny's death
13:00were largely shrouded in mystery
13:02for a long time.
13:05A senior French law enforcement source
13:07found some transactions
13:09on his credit card
13:10which showed him
13:11booking rooms in two hotels
13:12for the same night
13:13in central Paris.
13:16But nobody knew
13:17What was he doing there?
13:19I traveled out there
13:20to talk to sources
13:20in the French police
13:21about that case
13:23and was able to obtain
13:24a copy of the French police file
13:26into Peripolichny's death
13:28and discovered in the file
13:31that detectives
13:32had identified Elmira Medinska
13:34as the woman
13:35Peripolichny had been
13:36visiting in Paris.
13:40And so we had a name
13:42and we had a date of birth
13:44for Elmira Medinska
13:45and we knew she was
13:45a Ukrainian national.
13:47We didn't know where she was
13:49And so that's when I turned
13:50to Jane Bradley.
13:51She is our resident super sleuth
13:53when it comes to tracking people down.
13:55I started digging into her
13:56and I did all my usual searches,
13:59kind of social media,
14:00public records,
14:01everything I could think of
14:02and could find no trace
14:03of a woman called Elmira Medinska.
14:06And then I had a breakthrough.
14:07I found a company called Elmira Medinska
14:13in Spain and I thought,
14:16oh, she's using a different name.
14:18She's not using her full name.
14:19And that then led me to
14:21kind of her Facebook,
14:23Her Instagram.
14:23She'd changed her biography on Instagram
14:28and added a residential address
14:30in Paris to her biography.
14:31So I determined without much thought
14:36that I would go to this address.
14:39I set off,
14:40I let the team know
14:41that I was going in
14:42and we kind of set up
14:43Check-ins every 10 minutes.
14:44I arrived at this huge,
14:50great, big Parisian apartment block
14:52with an enormous,
14:52Great, big hardwood door.
14:55It was a great, big spiral staircase
14:57that went up about eight stories
14:58and I was trudging up,
15:00steps kind of echoing out
15:01in this big stone atrium
15:04and got to the top
15:06and there was Elmira Medinska
15:08Waiting for me.
15:11She was the tallest woman
15:12I have never seen anything like it in my life.
15:14She must have been
15:16six foot five or six foot six.
15:19I said to her,
15:20Were you expecting me?
15:22And she said,
15:23Yes, I was.
15:25And she ushered me into her apartment.
15:28And inside were three men,
15:31all wearing suits
15:32and speaking with,
15:35in heavily accented English.
15:39I said I was a journalist
15:41And I was there to ask her.
15:43about a man she'd spent
15:44a couple of nights with him in Paris
15:45about five years before,
15:46a man called Alexander Peripolichny.
15:49And she immediately said,
15:50well, of course I know this man.
15:56They had spent
15:57these two nights together in Paris.
15:59He'd been very agitated
16:01and clearly frightened
16:02during their trip together.
16:03He seemed really stressed
16:05and he kept leaving the dinner table.
16:09The day before he came back to London,
16:12he was sick after having sushi.
16:15And had spent hours throwing up.
16:17Peripolichny's inquiry at the time
16:31was ongoing
16:32and the police simply hadn't spoken
16:34to Elmer and Modinska
16:35about how he'd spent
16:36his last two nights.
16:40Peripolichny's inquest
16:41was heard at the Old Bailey
16:43in the heart of London.
16:45And the Old Bailey,
16:47for anyone who hasn't stepped inside,
16:49is exactly how you would imagine
16:52an old, Victorian,
16:54prestigious, historic court
16:57to be like.
17:00I personally sat through
17:0118 months of the inquest.
17:03I want this verdict
17:04to be an informed verdict.
17:07It was kind of
17:08a race against time
17:09to get Peripolichny's story ready.
17:14We wanted to publish it
17:16so the judge and all the parties
17:18would have time to properly
17:19kind of look into the evidence.
17:22We clearly couldn't sit on information
17:24that was germane to that inquest.
17:26so we just had to publish the story.
17:31We went first
17:32with the Peripolichny story.
17:36We'd established through Jason's
17:37incredible intelligence sourcing
17:39that there was a document
17:40that had been sent to Congress.
17:43U.S. intelligence officials
17:45had gathered intelligence.
17:47With Peripolichny's death,
17:48there was a high level of confidence
17:50that he was, in fact, murdered
17:52on orders of Vladimir Putin.
17:53And we also now had
17:56brand new information
17:57about the two days
17:58before he died.
18:00Our hope with publishing
18:02when we did
18:03was that the judge
18:04would see this information,
18:05See, ah,
18:06there is a physical documentary
18:08piece of evidence here
18:10that contains potentially
18:11important information
18:12about Peripolichny's death.
18:14BuzzFeed has published
18:15a series of explosive stories
18:17investigating a number of deaths
18:19with links to Russia.
18:21It was a huge relief
18:23to finally publish the story.
18:25We'd been working on it
18:26for over two years of our lives.
18:29I kind of felt like
18:31I had, like,
18:32a big flag on my head
18:35for being the troublesome
18:36BuzzFeed reporter
18:37that was upending the inquest
18:38and causing all sorts of problems.
18:40You know when you walk
18:41into a room
18:42and you feel half
18:43of the room's eyes
18:44glaring at you,
18:45Like, hating you
18:47for disrupting
18:49their quest,
18:50for the meddling press
18:51kind of publishing something
18:52that just blew up
18:54The inquest?
18:55And the judge
18:56and kind of
18:56some of the parties there
18:58for the government
18:59just kind of
19:00They were giving me daggers.
19:01People were already confused
19:02why BuzzFeed was in a courtroom.
19:03They thought we just did
19:04Cat gifts and lists.
19:06Heidi's interview
19:12with Elmira
19:13had a huge impact.
19:17The judge kind of
19:18scrabbled around
19:19to kind of
19:19Go through our reporting
19:21and figure out
19:21what were the kind of
19:23new lines of inquiry
19:24that were worth pursuing.
19:26He decided
19:27There were two lines.
19:29and that was to be interviewed
19:30Elmira Medinska
19:31and also to get
19:34the U.S. intelligence report.
19:36clearly highly
19:37relevant evidence.
19:40That pretty quickly
19:41blew up the inquest
19:42and they had to suspend it
19:44while the coroner
19:44sought new evidence
19:45off the back of our findings.
19:48Alex Peripolichny's inquest
19:50will resume next month.
19:53The inquest was upended
19:55to try and get answers.
19:57The judge did want
19:58to hear this evidence
19:59And it was important.
20:01Elmira Medinska
20:02was never interviewed
20:03by Surrey police.
20:05The details of what
20:06It happened in Paris
20:07only came out much later
20:09when she spoke to BuzzFeed
20:10and then the inquest
20:11into his death.
20:18One of the key theories
20:20being investigated
20:21was whether or not
20:22He was poisoned.
20:24Here we have
20:26this witness
20:27who the police
20:28didn't even bother
20:28to interview
20:29who is now telling
20:30a court
20:31that he's spent
20:31one of his last nights
20:32alive
20:33throwing up.
20:35This evidence
20:36wouldn't have been heard
20:38if we had it
20:39tracked down
20:39Elmira in Paris
20:41and told her story.
20:43It's difficult
20:44to make these cases
20:45stick in court.
20:49At the inquest
20:50Monique Simmons
20:51said that actually
20:52it wasn't possible
20:52to say that the substance
20:54she detected
20:54was galcemium.
20:57We were asked
20:58specifically
20:59to confirm
21:00whether this iron
21:02was or was not
21:03from the galcemium.
21:06So when we went
21:08back to check
21:09on this
21:09we could not
21:10find an iron
21:12That was similar.
21:14We had no evidence
21:16that it contained
21:17the alkaloids
21:18from galcemium.
21:20She said
21:20along with the other
21:21toxicologists
21:21There were other tests.
21:23they would have liked
21:23to carry out
21:24to definitively
21:25find out what it was
21:26but they couldn't
21:26because the pathologist
21:28threw away
21:29the majority
21:29of his stomach contents
21:31and that really
21:32limited the amount
21:34of toxicology tests
21:35that could be carried out.
21:38It's one of the many
21:38features of investigating
21:40this pattern
21:42of suspicious deaths
21:42that makes
21:43It's quite difficult.
21:45to get to the truth.
21:47Do you have faith
21:48in this quest
21:48as it is at the moment
21:49to get to the truth?
21:50There's so much information
21:51that's still not
21:52been ventilated
21:53and so many requests
21:54that we've made
21:55for further investigation
21:56actions
21:57which have not
21:58been approved.
21:59I felt very conscious
22:01as we went about
22:02our work
22:02of the threats
22:03that journalists
22:05around the world
22:06and particularly in Russia
22:07face on a daily basis
22:08as they go after
22:09the truth.
22:10A couple of us
22:11were living
22:12away from home
22:13in these secure locations
22:14We've been put in.
22:16Weird things
22:17started happening
22:17to a few of us.
22:19Cars outside our house,
22:21things being moved around
22:22in one of our apartments.
22:24Then you start to think,
22:25has this person
22:26been behind me
22:27For a long time?
22:27Are they following me?
22:28This was really chilling.
22:32investigation
22:33to work on a story
22:35where you feel
22:36threatened.
22:39The kind of level
22:40of understanding
22:40that's given me
22:41I think it doesn't go away.
22:42This has been a detailed
23:02and exhaustive process
23:03in which the coroner
23:04has examined
23:05all of the available evidence
23:06and has returned
23:07a verdict
23:08of natural causes.
23:09This supports the conclusion
23:11reached by Surrey police
23:12in 2013
23:13following a full investigation
23:15which included
23:16two post-mortems
23:17and a very extensive range
23:19of toxicology tests.
23:21The thing that baffled me
23:23about the inquest verdict
23:24was how you can
23:27say someone died,
23:29likely died,
23:30of natural causes
23:31without finding
23:33any natural cause
23:34of death.
23:35Today, Putin will be
23:37Celebrating this result.
23:39I mean, just every step
23:40of the way
23:40this was just
23:41keystone cops.
23:43There's huge
23:44circumstantial evidence
23:45that Putin sent
23:46His assassins are here.
23:48If the police
23:48had investigated properly
23:49I think there would have
23:50been a different result.
23:52I am satisfied.
23:53that the investigation
23:54was conducted
23:56to the best of its ability
23:57based on what was known
23:58at the time
23:59and the evidence available.
24:01There weren't any
24:02external factors involved
24:04And that's the conclusion.
24:06that the coroner came to
24:07as well,
24:07that it was probably
24:08natural causes.
24:10If people want to say
24:11the parapolacianic case
24:13was innocent
24:13and it was a heart attack,
24:15Fine.
24:15Why was some of the evidence
24:17Heard behind closed doors?
24:18You don't do that
24:19in an average heart attack case.
24:21If I went out
24:22and eat some bad sushi,
24:24killed over,
24:25There's no way on Earth.
24:26that in my quest
24:27there would be closed evidence
24:29that was withheld
24:30for national security reasons.
24:36The British authorities
24:37have to be helped
24:38to account for their failure
24:40to act on the evidence
24:41that we'd already uncovered
24:42that Russia may have been
24:44conducting an escalating
24:45targeted campaign
24:47assassination on British soil.
24:48Everything they're writing
25:01This is wrong.
25:02It's false information.
25:03It's misinformation.
25:05It's a disappointment.
25:06It's not true
25:07what they're writing.
25:09If somebody wants
25:10to give an interview
25:11like I'm doing right now,
25:13it does not mean
25:14that he automatically
25:16becomes a potential victim
25:18for the Russian
25:19intelligence services.
25:20Node,
25:21This is not true.
25:22And if I am walking
25:23Get out of this room now.
25:25and something happens
25:26to me,
25:27like a car accident
25:30Or I'm getting poisoned.
25:31with bad fish,
25:34something because
25:34I love sushi.
25:36okay,
25:36that does not mean
25:37that the Russian
25:38Intelligence is involved.
25:40But of course,
25:41BuzzFeed can make
25:42an investigation
25:43and say,
25:43look,
25:44Here's a former
25:44special operations officer.
25:46He's living in this country.
25:48He's giving interviews
25:49and this is very natural
25:50and obvious
25:51that the Russians
25:52were on him
25:53for a long time
25:53because he's publishing
25:54books, articles
25:55and doing private
25:56investigations
25:57for private British companies
25:58and that is natural
26:00that he was dealt with
26:01by secret services,
26:03which is not true.
26:09The funny thing is,
26:10right,
26:11people were like
26:12sort of disbelieving
26:13of what we've done
26:14and then all of a sudden
26:16this bulletin
26:17goes through newsrooms.
26:20There's been
26:21some kind of event
26:22in Salisbury
26:22and literally
26:26It changed.
26:29It changed.
26:30Thanks,
26:39very similar
26:39time to do
26:40Nothing
26:40in theš
26:41I know
26:42if they didn't
26:42have
26:43the opportunity
26:43in theš
26:43of the
26:44man
26:44has
26:48been
26:48in theš
26:48of
26:49date
26:50in theš
26:52and the nj
26:53and the mj
26:53have been
26:54a team
26:55in theš
26:56then
26:57you
26:57have been
26:58What is that?
27:28What is that?
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