The widow of a wealthy Russian whistleblower has said he never feared for his life before he was allegedly poisoned with sorrel soup.
Alexander Perepilichnyy, 44, collapsed and died while running near his home in Weybridge, Surrey, in November 2012.
The businessman's death was originally attributed to natural causes, but traces of a chemical that can be found in the poisonous plant Gelsemium elegans were later found in his stomach.
Before his death, Mr Perepilichnyy had been helping a specialist investment firm uncover a 230 million US dollar (£150 million) Russian money-laundering operation.
An inquest, sitting at the Old Bailey, will look at whether he was poisoned and who might have had a motive to murder him.
Giving evidence behind a screen, his widow Tatiana Perepilichnaya denied her husband fell out with an "organised crime syndicate" in Russia or that he moved to England because he owed people a lot of money.
The mother-of-two said the family only moved to the UK for their children's education and because she liked the culture.
She said: "I liked England very much. People have a different relationship. Even if you take a situation in a shop and supermarket people are kind, polite and smile at you. I always felt at home in London."
Peter Skelton QC, counsel for the coroner, asked: "Did Alexander mention he lost a large amount of money to people in Russia he had invested for them?"
Mrs Perepilichnaya replied: "No."
She said he never told her he had fallen out with a criminal syndicate or that he was worried about being arrested in Russia.
Asked if she or her husband feared for their safety, she said: "In 20 years of marriage Alexander never had bodyguard or security, so our life in Russia and our life in England never varied. It's the same.
"I know if there were any threats or problems Alexander would have told me."
In the weeks before his death her "workaholic" husband had lost a lot of weight through a "very strict diet", she said.
She said: "I thought it was very unhealthy when somebody loses weight that quickly.
"He never had so many wrinkles on his face but from his point of view he could fit into suits and he was very happy about that."
Mr Skelton asked: "Did he complain about feeling unwell in any way? Did his eating habits change significantly?
"Was there any physical contact with someone he had not expected?
"Any food he had which tasted unexpected?"
Mrs Perepilichnaya repeatedly answered: "No."
The widow, who is originally from Kurdistan, said her husband had been the breadwinner while she was a full-time mother and they did not talk much about his work.
She told the inquest her husband was "very smart" and hard-working and had wide business interests in computers, manufacturing, frozen foods and condensed milk.
He also was a commodity dealer and trader on the Russian stock exchange, the court heard.
She said: "I just knew he was interested in that business. I didn't know what commodity meant.
"I knew his business was something to do with computers and then I knew about factories in dairy and vegetables."
On what she knew of corruption and organised crime in Russia, she said: "I prefer not to read newspapers. Bearing in mind how the media ruined the reputation of my husband, I don't read newspapers."
She told the inquest her husband never mentioned anything about having to pay bribes to officials.
And she was unaware of a man taking out an advert in Russia in 2011, accusing her husband of cheating him out of "a lot of money".
She said she did not know about any fraud allegations, adding: "I only have time to do house chores."
Asked if her husband was involved in Russian politics, Mrs Perepilichnaya said: "Alexander was not politically minded. He was a very non-confrontational person. I don't know."
Earlier, Mr Skelton outlined the background to the case and the central questions: "Did Mr Perepilichnyy die of natural causes? Was he poisoned? Is it possible to say how on the balance of probability how he died?"
The court heard an investigation by Surrey Police had concluded that there was no basis to any suggestion he was murdered.
Mr Skelton said requests had since been made to the Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for any information held by security services on any "threats to personal safety or life" to the deceased and any "third party involvement" in the death and any connection between Mr Perepilichnyy and "five named individuals".
He said the Government had taken a "generous approach" to relevance in its reply to the coroner although it had led to a public interest immunity application to keep some "sensitive" information out of the public domain.
The lawyer said the inquest would be "full, fair and fearless".
He said the direct circumstances of the death including toxicology and the wider background would be examined.
The scope included whoever may have had a "motive to murder" Mr Perepilichnyy and any connection with the fraud.
But Mr Skelton reminded the court that the "adequacy or otherwise" of the police investigation was not part of the inquest remit.
He added that no-one should lose sight of the fact that Ukraine-born Mr Perepilichnyy was a husband and father of two young children who had "suffered gravely".
Later Mrs Perepilichnaya told the inquest her husband took out multiple life insurance policies as a "necessary element of purchasing a house" in Britain.
He took out £3.5 million in insurance policies with three companies between May and July 2012. He also applied for a further £5 million in additional life insurance, the court heard.
The widow said he had been looking at buying a house worth nearly £8 million with a mortgage of up to £6 million.
The couple were also house hunting in Miami for a property with "direct access to the sea", she said.
Mr Skelton said: "He never mentioned to you 'there is a possibility I might die suddenly but you will be okay?'"
Mrs Perepilichnaya said: "Of course not."
On the day of his death, the businessman returned from a trip to Paris at about midday.
The inquest heard his wife texted him about the sorrel soup she was planning to make him.
On his arrival he chatted about how Paris was "very grey and gloomy" and made a plan with his daughter to get a computer.
Mrs Perepilichnaya told how she made sorrel soup with her daughter with a boiled chicken fillet, onions and carrots.
She told the inquest sorrel was available fresh in Russia and Ukraine but in the UK she bought it in jars from Sainsbury's, Tesco or a Russian shop.
Mrs Perepilichnaya said she and her daughter both tasted the soup as they cooked it and finished it later.
The deceased went to a computer shop with his daughter then for a run at about 4pm, the court heard.
His widow denied ever checking his text messages, voicemail, email or Skype communications before his death.
Mr Skelton asked: "Did you ever hear him having a conversation when he sounded like he was being threatened or bullied?"
The witness denied it.
The lawyer quizzed Mrs Perepilichnaya about a conversation she had with two family liaison officers in November 2012 about previous threats to her husband's safety.
Mr Skelton said she had contact with the police in May 2011 and their home address was recorded on the police system.
Afterwards, she told police that her husband had expressed concern that it jeopardised their safety as people in Russia had access to the Met police computer.
Mrs Perepilichnaya disputed the record of family liaison officers saying nobody showed her what they had written.
In June 2011, the deceased received a text saying: "Alexander you will go to prison really seriously for long. I can do that. If you want to live free and happily you have to pay 300,000 rubles (£6,000)."
Mrs Perepilichnaya said she did not know who sent the message but the sum was nothing to her husband.
She said she also overheard her husband on the phone saying: "Pressuring him. Who's pressuring him?" in reference to a third party.
Mr Skelton asked if she had ever heard of his name being on "hit list" found by police in a Moscow apartment a year before his death.
The witness, who has a brother living in the city, said she did not know of it and no family member had been briefed by a police official about it.
She said: "None of the members of our family either in Ukraine or Russia confirmed they had anything to do with it - and our family is not that big."
Mr Skelton asked if she now accepted her husband had been in contact with specialist investment firm Hermitage Capital Management about an allegation of fraud as well as the Swiss authorities.
She said: "He communicated with them, yes."
Mr Skelton asked if the witness discussed with her brother whether her husband's involvement in the Hermitage issue may have put his safety at risk and led to his death.
Mrs Perepilichnaya said her brother told her there were no threats to her husband.
Mr Skelton asked: "Do you think your husband was murdered?"
She replied: "No."
Robert Moxon Browne QC, for insurer Legal and General, asked Mrs Perepilichnaya what she knew about her husband's business dealings and his contact with Hermitage.
He suggested that by the time the family moved to England in 2010, one of his firms was facing tax evasion accusations in Russia.
In August that year, he went to Hermitage with banking documents which allegedly demonstrated money-laundering activity, the inquest heard.
The witness told the inquest she was unaware of that but had since been told Hermitage promised not to leak his name.
She said: "I didn't know anything about Hermitage. I didn't even know the name of the company."
By the autumn of 2011, the witness's brother Rishat was having trouble with Russian authorities over his affairs, which were bound up with her husband's, it was alleged.
Mr Moxon Browne said a Skype message between the pair could be interpreted as the deceased trying to find out how much "gratitude" needed to be paid to relieve the pressure.
The witness said she knew nothing about it.