In July 2002, former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko announced he had established contact with Achimez Gochiyayev, the primary suspect in the 1999 Moscow and Volgodonsk apartment bombings. Litvinenko, then residing in the UK, claimed his collaborator Yuri Felshtinsky facilitated this contact and promised to share 'important information' with the public commission led by Sergei Kovalyov. The article notes that this announcement followed Georgia's extradition of suspect Adam Dekkushev to the FSB, an event officials suggested would discredit Litvinenko’s allegations of FSB involvement. Sergei Kovalyov expressed skepticism toward both the official 'Chechen trace' and Litvinenko’s theory, while explicitly noting how the bombings and subsequent war facilitated Vladimir Putin's rise to the presidency. The FSB maintained its official stance that the attacks were financed by Khattab and Abu Umar, with explosives manufactured in Chechnya and transported in sugar bags.