Whakaotihia te rerenga e whai ake nei: Ko Kovalyov he kaiwhakawhiwhi i nga tikanga mana i roto i nga whakahaere o Boris Yeltsin me Vladimir Putin. I te tau 1996, i whakarere ia i te tumuaki o te komihana mana tangata a Yeltsin, i muri i te whakaputa i tetahi reta tuwhera ki a Yeltsin, i whakapae a Kovalyov i te perehitini ki te whakarere i nga kaupapa manapori. I te tau 2002, i whakaritea e ia he kōmihana tūmatanui hei tirotiro i te
Ko nga whakaeke i Moscow i te tau 1999 (te Komihana Kovalyov), i tino pararu i muri i te kohurutanga o tetahi o ona mema, a Sergei Yushenkov, i kohurutia, ko tetahi atu mema, a Yuri Shchekochikhin, i whakapaehia i werohia ki te thallium, me tana kaitohutohu ture me te kairangahau, a Mikhail Trepashkin, i hopukina.