The History Bureau - Putin and the Apartment Bombs: 4. The Poisoning

Download Putin and the Apartment Bombs: 4. The Poisoning

Two men challenging the FSB’s story flee to London seeking safety, only to end up dead.

Years after the apartment bombings shook Russia a press conference is held in London, led by exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Once a kingmaker who helped propel Putin to power, Berezovsky now claims the bombs were an inside job. And in the room sits another man, Alexander Litvinenko, whose own investigation into the bombings will set him on a perilous collision course with the Kremlin. As the danger moves across borders, one question lingers: how high is the price for speaking out? In this episode, Helena speaks to Jeremy Vine and Gordon Corera, two journalists who followed the story from the UK.

In Season 1 of The History Bureau, presenter Helena Merriman returns to one of the most contested - and consequential - stories in modern Russia. In September 1999, just weeks after Vladimir Putin became Prime Minister, four bombs blew up four apartment buildings across Russia. The bombs exploded in the middle of the night, killing hundreds of people while they slept. In this season, Merriman returns to the story with the reporters who were there on the ground. What did they get right first time around? And, in the chaos and confusion of unfolding events, what did they miss?

Presenter: Helena Merriman
Series Producer: Sarah Shebbeare
Executive Editor: Annie Brown

Published on Tuesday, 13th January 2026.

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