Steve Bell/REX/Shutterstock Russian Billionaire Boris Berezovsky arriving at the High Court in London in 2011

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Documents which emerged during the course of the recent inquiry into the spy’s death revealed the murky world the Russian lived in before he was poisoned at a central London hotel. Paul Tatum founded an American business centre in Moscow and was part owner of the city’s Radisson Slavyankaya Hotel where world leaders stayed while meeting Russian leaders.

Fearing crime gangs wanted to take over the hotel, he had 18 bodyguards and wore a bullet-proof jacket. In November 1996 he was lured to a meeting at a metro station where a sniper lay in wait and pumped 11 bullets into him.

Sipa Press/REX/Shutterstock American buisnessman Paul Tatum was assassinated in Moscow in 1996

Five hit his neck, just above his bullet-proof vest. At the time it was thought organised crime bosses ordered the killing. However, a statement to Russian authorities from Litvinenko in 2001 named a fellow Russian secret agent as the man behind the crime.

Come on, you can’t be sorry for him. You know he was a right ******* Russian secret agent

“At the time all patrols and beats were removed from the area,” he stated. He said the colleague told him: “We got that American after all.” Litvinenko said he tried to change the subject but the man continued: “Come on, you can’t be sorry for him. You know he was a right *******.” After the murder there was an attempt by the Russian secret service to frame a Chechen businessman for the crime.

EPA Alexander Litvinenko during a press conference at the 'Interfax' news agency in 1998

Litvinenko explained in his statement: “Officers often blame others for their crimes, fabricate criminal evidence against an innocent person, put that person behind bars and the crime is considered solved. For example when one of the Moscow buses was blown up a person who had nothing to do with the crime was convicted and put in prison.” Litvinenko had fled Russia in fear of his life after publicly saying Moscow was plotting to kill Boris Berezovsky. The 67-year-old oligarch died three years ago at Ascot, Berkshire, after purportedly hanging himself.

GETTY All these revelations have surfaced in documents published as part of Sir Robert Owen’s inquiry

The 67-year-old oligarch died three years ago at Ascot, Berkshire, after purportedly hanging himself. However, Litvinenko said he had met with a former Russian agent who told him there was a plot to kill Berezovsky. All these revelations have surfaced in documents published as part of Sir Robert Owen’s inquiry into Litvinenko’s death, aged 44 in London in 2006, after being poisoned by polonium.