Vladimir Bukovsky: Death of a Dissident

I was saddened to learn of the death of Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, but to be frank he had been very ill for a long time, and so it was to be expected. It was only his incredible strength that carried him this far, I am sure.

I first met Vladimir in 2004 at London City Hall - which we ironically nicknamed "Ken's Kremlin" - at a cocktail event. I was to meet with him on numerous occasions over the years.

I greatly admired him for the fact that he withstood more than a decade of imprisonment and so-called "psychiatric treatment" in a variety of Soviet hell-holes and he never once broke.

He was actually instrumental in one of the most interesting episodes in my career in politics. In early 2006, over a nice dinner at Rose Blanche, in Grand Place, Brussels, he told me a very interesting story. And so we hatched a plan....

A follow up meeting was arranged in June of that year, at the Victory Services Club in London, and so I came to be introduced to former Deputy Head of KGB, Oleg Gordievsky. I had never met such a high ranking KGB officer before - at least not knowingly - and so I was intrigued. What a lovely chap he turned out to be.

After 15 minutes debate between Oleg (who was somewhat suspicious of Chilean Merlot) and Vladimir as to which red wine to order, before arbitrarily settling on a gin & tonic, patiently answered most of the 101 questions I had for him, and he told some very interesting stories (His autobiography Next Stop Execution is well worth a read).

We were joined by London MEP Gerard Batten, and we got down to business. Via telephone, the discussion was joined by former spy Alexander Litvinenko, and it started to get very interesting.

To cut a (very) long story short, the plan we had hatched over Flemish beef stew and a bottle of Georges DeBouef Morgon (I never forget a good dinner) came together, and Romano Prodi was outed in the European Parliament, live on TV, as a former KGB asset just days before the Italian Presidential elections. Job done!

The story ended sadly, however, as Litvinenko was murdered by the FSB, on Vladimir Putin's orders, in London just five months later.

Vladimir Bukovsky will always remain, I am sure, the only person I have ever met who watched Stalin's funeral from the roof of a hotel overlooking Red Square. As a 10-year old boy he witnessed the crush that led to the deaths of over 100 mourners - just one of the many horrors of the Soviet era that was to be covered up for many years.

Such wonderful characters are becoming increasingly rare, sadly...