The document makes much of the juxtaposition between the harsh conditions of workers in Siberia and the gilded lifestyle enjoyed by Shchukina, who runs an art gallery in Mayfair. Shchukina and her husband are no strangers to such attacks. Earlier this year they found themselves the subject of an extraordinary film, produced to accompany Blood, Coal Money , which made outlandish claims about the relationship between the secret intelligence service, MI6, and Uzbekov.
At one stage this newspaper was promised an interview, though the offer was later withdrawn, with Stanislav Antipin, the first secretary at the Russian embassy in London.
Alexander Korobko, a Russian journalist who wrote a favourable biography of President Putin and directed a documentary-style film exonerating Andrei Lugovoi , chief suspect in the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko , was also on the Lazarevich campaign. So too was Dr Andrei Liakhov, a well-connected former Russian military officer who was injured in a chemical-weapons attack in Afghanistan, and who, during an interview with the Observer, held up his mobile phone to reveal that it apparently contained a number for President Putin.
Liakhov told the Observer he had become involved in the campaign because he believed in getting justice for Lazarevich, not because he was being paid.
Korobko, too, claims to have been paid only a nominal fee. The son of a miner, he apparently wanted to help the Lazarevich family. Bellingham pledged to take up the case. Razzall also wanted the NCA involved. But by June things were starting to unravel. The firm insists no payment was ever received and the project to promote the documentary never got off the ground.
