 Had Yusupov’s account of running alongside the yard he would have been close to Purishkevich when he allegedly fired the two shots knocking Rasputin to the floor.
 Yusupov tells us that he ran alongside the fence of 92 Moika towards the middle gates of the yard ‘because only the middle gates were unlocked’. How does this relate with Purishkevich’s statement about using the side gates? If Lazovert drove Yusupov and Rasputin through the side gate then who locked it afterwards? From which gate did the other conspirators leave on their way to Purishkevich’s train at the Warsaw Railway Station and to collect Dimitry’s car? Who locked the side gates after they left?
 However Yusupov was in the yard when policeman Vlasuk arrives, the body is allegedly still in the yard and shielded from Vlasuk by Yusupov and his major domo. This is a phenomenal turn of speed by Vlasuk, given that Purishkevich says that after standing by the body for a few minutes he went inside and sent Ivan and Buzhinsky out to drag the body indoors. Vlasuk, according to his statement was at his post at the junction of Prachechny Lane and Maksimilianovsky Lane, when he heard the ‘shots’, he then makes his way via Prachechny Lane, across the Pochtamtsky (Post Office) Bridge and spoke to Efimov at his post near 61 Bolshaya Morskaya Street. Vlasuk had covered some considerable distance and yet according to Yusupov the body was still in the yard. You will recall he suggests that as Vlasuk approached, that he was standing in front of the body and the two servants were running out into the yard.
 Vlasuk tells a different story, he says that Yusupov and Buzhinsky were walking across the yard towards him together. He would have been in an ideal position to see the body if it was there.
 Vlasuk says that after the conversation in the yard Yusupov and Buzhinsky left whilst he remained and looked around the yard, he did not see the corpse. Yusupov tells a different story.
 Vlasuk’s reappearance: Purishkevich states that this was after Yusupov physically assaulted Rasputin’s corpse; Yusupov suggests it was before.
 Purishkevich recalls Yusupov being dragged off the body by the two servants; Yusupov states that he fell asleep by the body and was taken to bed by Purishkevich and Ivan.
 Purishkevich mentions how Yusupov was blood stained from the assault and seated in the study on a sofa. He was still in this position when Vlasuk returned.
 Vlasuk states that as he entered Yusupov’s study Purishkevich and Yusupov walked towards him. He does not mention Yusupov’s clothes being blood stained.
 Purishkevich says that he asked Buzhinsky to recall Vlasuk. Vlasuk says that Buzhinsky told him that it was Yusupov who asked him to return. Yusupov says that Buzhinsky told him that Vlasuk had been told to return because his initially report was considered insufficient. There could be correlation with Paleologue’s comments about a member of the Okhrana being present.
 The scene of crime photograph clearly shows a line of blood spots in the snow. What it also shows is snow piled up against the side gate, which was allegedly open on the night. A telegram to the Supreme Commander in Chief Headquarters states ‘Traces of blood had been found on the snow in the small garden in the course of close examination’ Source GARF Rasputin File. There is clearly a covering of snow on the yard, Purishkevich refers to this. Had the gate been open and the snow not piled up against it on the night of the murder the blood would have been swept up to a greater degree with the snow. I believe this shows conclusively the side gates were never opened on the night of the murder.
 Weights and chains – in his diary entry (if it was a diary) for 29 November, Purishkevich states that he and his wife purchased the two pood weights (a pood is an ancient Russian measure of weight and is equivalent to 16.4 kilograms or 43.9 pounds) and chains to send Rasputin’s body to the bottom of the river. As an aside the thought of Mr and Mrs Purishkevich carrying these heavy weights through the streets of St. Petersburg is almost farcical. We hear no more of these weights and chains until he tells us that Rasputin’s body was dragged into Dimitry’s car on the night of the murder. He suggests that he brought them to the Yusupov Palace that night – but he makes no mention about this as he describes his and Lazovert’s arrival at the Palace.
 The farce of the cars – Purishkevich tells us that Dimitry, Sukhotin and Lazovert, with Lazovert dressed as the chauffer and Sukhotin dressed in Rasputin’s outer clothes to fool and police spies, drive to Purishkevich’s train. Here we are told Mrs Purishkevich and Mrs Lazovert were to burn the clothing. Because it is difficult Mrs Purishkevich declines. The three load Purishkevich’s car onto a railway car and then either take a cab or walk to Sergei Alexandrovich’s Palace on the Nevsky Prospect to collect Dimitry’s car. Carrying all Rasputin’s clothes with them. Lazovert does not mention this cross St. Petersburg trip.
 The application of real timings to the alleged sequence of events and journeys undertaken expose this part of Purishkevich’s and Yusupov’s stories to be a total fabrication. Even being generous with the timings the earliest Purishkevich and Lazovert could have final returned to the Warsaw Station was 0700 hrs and not sometime after 0500 hrs as Purishkevich suggests.
 The mummified body of Rasputin is dragged into the back of Dimitry’s car. The Grand Duke drove, Sukhotin sat next to him. Purishkevich sat on the left in the back, with Lazovert on the right. The body is on the floor with Ivan sitting on top of it. Rather cramped? It was even more cramped than this, there were the two pood weights to be accommodated, plus Purishkevich suddenly realises all Rasputin’s over clothes and shoes – a vast automobile.
 The body would have bled profusely there is only one line of blood in the yard. According to Purishkevich Rasputin ran across the yard whilst bleeding, he was shot twice and collapsed in the snow. He was then dragged back to the basement across the yard. He was then dragged out to the car. There are not irregular patters of blood dripping that would have been associated with such movements of the body. Rasputin was moved once, from the basement to the car.
 The car must have been so big that they forgot to attach the two pood weights and the chains. They also forgot, the fur coat, two over boots and one shoe. One of the over shoes they wouldn’t discover until their return to Dimitry’s residence.
 Purishkevich says that after the body was thrown into the river, they realised they hadn’t thrown the fur coat in, so they weighted it with the chains and through it in after the body. This could not have been right as the fur coat was wrapped around the body when it was recovered.
 Rasputin was dead for sometime before he entered the water. He did not attempt to release his bonds.
 The idea that dawn was approaching, it was not.
Hope this keps you busy till I come back from holiday
Richard
