Who was Nikolai Glushkov? Russian businessman and Boris Berezovsky’s friend found dead in South London
NIKOLAI Glushkov was found dead in his London home late on March 12 in South West London.
Glushkov was a 68-year-old Russian exile who was friends with the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky and believed he was on a Kremlin hit-list. Here's what we know about him and his death.
Who was Nikolai Glushkov?
In the 1990s Glushkov was a director of the state airline Aeroflot and Berezovsky’s LogoVAZ car company.
Berezovsky fled to the UK in 1999 after he fell out with Vladimir Putin and Glushkov was charged with money laundering and spent five years in jail.
He was released in 2004 and fled to the UK where he was granted political asylum in 2010.
Glushkov was also questioned as part of the inquiry into the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with highly radioactive polonium-210 in 2006 in a hotel bar in London.
Glushkov told the inquiry that he bumped into Litvinenko in Berezovsky's office.
He gave evidence in a 2011 court case that Berezovsky had brought against Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea Football Club.
In March 2013 Berezovsky was found dead at his ex-wife’s home in Berkshire.
Police said they believed he killed himself and a coroner recorded an open verdict, but Glushkov told The Guardian in 2013 that he was sceptical that Berezovsky would take his own life.
In 2017, during a trial in absentia in Russia, Glushkov was sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing $123m from Aeroflot.
Glushkov has two adult children, Natasha and Dima, and an ex-wife who lives in Moscow.
When did Glushkov die?
Glushkov's body was discovered at his South West London home on March 12, 2018.
He had “signs of suffocation” on his neck, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant.
Glushkov’s London neighbours in New Malden portrayed him as leading a quiet life and had been recovering from an operation on his leg.
Neighbour Kate Fitzsimmons, 87, said: “He seemed like a quiet man. A lady would come sometimes as well but he kept to himself generally.”
A murder investigation was launched into Glushkov's death after a post-mortem found he died as a result of compression to the neck.
Most read in news
What have the police said?
The Met Police’s Counter Terrorism Command is treating Glushkov’s death as murder.
A statement from the force said: "At this stage, there is nothing to suggest any link to the attempted murders in Salisbury, nor any evidence that he was poisoned.
"Detectives are retaining an open mind and are appealing for any information that will assist the investigation into Mr Glushkov’s murder to contact them in confidence on 0800 789 321.
"In particular, they are appealing for anyone who may have seen or heard anything suspicious at or near his home in Clarence Avenue, New Malden, between Sunday, March 11, and Monday, March 12 to contact them."
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.