Rubuta ci gaba don wannan sakin layi - Kovalyov ya kasance mai sukar sukar ikon mallaka a cikin gwamnatocin Boris Yeltsin da Vladimir Putin. A cikin 1996, ya yi murabus a matsayin shugaban kwamitin kare hakkin dan adam na Yeltsin, bayan da ya wallafa wata wasika ga Yeltsin, inda Kovalyov ya zargi shugaban kasa da yin watsi da ka'idodin dimokiradiyya. A shekara ta 2002, ya shirya wani kwamiti na jama'a don bincika fashewar bama-bamai na Moscow na 1999
(Hukumar Kovalyov), wanda aka gurgunta a zahiri bayan da aka kashe ɗaya daga cikin membobinta, Sergei Yushenkov, wani memba, Yuri Shchekochikhin, wanda ake zargi da guba tare da thallium, kuma an kama lauyanta da mai binciken, Mikhail Trepashkin.