Ukrainian designer companion of 'assassinated' Russian whistleblower says British police never spoke to her as authorities accused of cover-up 

Perepilichnyy had fled Moscow after lifting the lid on a $230 million tax fraud by corrupt Russian government officials, passing the information on to Swiss prosecutors. 

The case was connected to that of Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian lawyer who was found dead in prison after uncovering the fraud. Perepilichnyy had originally assisted in the fraud, but after Magnitsky's death he turned on his mafia paymasters.

The reporters tracked down a Ukrainian woman, Elmira Medynska, now 27, who spent the last two nights of Perepilichnyy’s life with him at the Hotel Bristol in Paris.

Miss Medynska, who describes herself as a fashion designer and lives in a penthouse on the Avenue Victor Hugo in Paris, said she had never spoken to any investigators. The British had emailed her, but did not follow up when she provided her contact details, she said. The French were stymied by the lack of action from the British.

Records show that the pair stayed at the hotel for two nights, ordering the hotel’s “romance pack,” and checked out on November 10, with Perepilichnyy getting the Eurostar back to London. 

It was later that same day that Perepilichnyy died, collapsing while out on a run near his house.

Miss Medynska told the website that she had no idea Perepilichnyy was married with an eight-year-old daughter, nor did she know about his whistleblowing.

She said the news reached her in an email from Perepilichnyy’s wife, Tatiana, who called her “bad words”.

When Miss Medynska googled him and read about his background, she said she was not surprised that he had died. 

“It happens to Russian people in London,” she said. “He gave Russian information to Swiss and you can be killed for that.”

Despite Surrey police ruling that there were no suspicious circumstances and saying that toxicology reports came back negative, a pre-inquest hearing, with fresh tests demanded by his life insurance company, heard that traces of a rare and deadly plant poison, Gelsemium elegans, were discovered in his stomach.

The poison has been used in the past by Russian and Chinese assassins.

Amber Rudd, the home secretary, invoked national security powers to withhold evidence from the inquest into his cause of death. 

The inquest began last week, and is continuing.

A former Scotland Yard commander said the police position was “very worrying”.  At the inquest last week, the most senior officer at the scene of Perepilichnyy's death, who has since retired, contradicted the official police line and said he now believes the "the death is suspicious."

And Chris Phillips, the former head of Britain’s National Counter Terrorism Security Office, told BuzzFeed that he had no doubts it was an assassination. 

“It’s so obvious that it’s an assassination,” he said. “There’s no way it wasn’t a hit. It’s ridiculous.” 

Surrey police did not respond to a request for comment last night. The CIA said it had no comment on the report.