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Akhmed Zakayev, Chechen rebel living in self-imposed exile in Britain, told the BBC that he had not been surprised to learn that he was blacklisted by Russian security services. “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.”

Akhmed Zakayev listened intently as his friend Alexander Litvinenko read out the names in an alleged Russian hit-list of political dissidents, the BBC reports. 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 neighbors.

Hours earlier, on November 1, Alexander 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 Scaramella and Litvinenko. As the pair headed towards north London, Litvinenko, a former member of the Russian secret services, FSB, told Mr Zakayev he too was on the list. “I was not surprised,” said 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.”

After being dropped off, Litvinenko fell ill later that night and was hospitalized two days later. He died on 23 November, apparently from polonium-210 poisoning.

Kremlin officials have consistently denied any government or secret service involvement in the murder.

Zakayev, 47, a field commander in the first Chechen war, was granted political asylum in the UK in November 2003 after fighting off an extradition request from Russia. Authorities in Moscow accuse him of helping to prepare the theatre seizure in Moscow in 2002 and of taking part in other terrorist acts between 1996 and 1999. He denies the charges.

“I am grateful to Great Britain for having offered me safe refuge,” Zakayev, who is a key witness in the Metropolitan Police’s investigation into Mr Litvinenko’s death, told BBC.

“If you can’t live in your home, there is no better place than Great Britain. Sasha [Alexander Litvinenko] and I both believed that. Whenever we discussed our security, Sasha always said [the Russian authorities] would never dare touch us here on British soil.”

While in Moscow the two operated on opposite sides of the Chechen conflict.

Zakayev said Litvinenko became disillusioned with his paymasters over what he felt was an unjust war.

They linked up in London under the patronage of Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Their circle expanded to include an older generation of Russian exiles, such as Oleg Gordievsky and Vladimir Bukovsky. When Zakayev and fellow Russian dissidents met up in London to discuss politics, they would often toast “death to Putin”.

Zakayev now is anticipating a fresh attempt by Moscow to have him extradited in exchange for Russian help in the investigation into Litvinenko’s death. He said he was prepared to be questioned in London by Russian investigators who have opened their own inquiry.

Zakayev claims the Kremlin wants to silence him and others like him who speak out against the regime. “I don’t have anything to be afraid of because I know they will try anything to eliminate me.

”A person becomes a dissident when he or she doesn’t fear any more. The most important thing for them is to shut me up. If I do that they will have achieved their objective with Sasha’s killing. But I won’t be silenced.“

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