Numerous critics of the Russian leadership have been the subject of suspected poisoning over the years. The most recent case is a neurotoxic attack on opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
News of the strange symptoms confuses peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Ukrainian negotiators and the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich Conflicting information has been circulated about possible skin and eye symptoms. American newspaper Wall Street Journal (switch to another service) said on Monday that they were the subject of suspected poisoning in negotiations in early March.
Ukraine seems to take the suspicions seriously.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba warned negotiators to avoid eating in Istanbul’s peace talks today, says British Broadcasting Corporation BBC (switch to another service). Kuleba also urged negotiators to avoid touching the surfaces.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov according to the news, it is part of the information warfare, and the information about the poisoning of Abramovich is incorrect.
However, it is not surprising that the possibility of poisoning arises.
In recent years, a number of high-profile poisonings have been linked to the Russian state. We listed them for this thing.
1. Opposition leader Navalny’s flight ended prematurely
Most recently, the Russian state has been suspected in a case involving a Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalnyi fought for his life on a plane over Russia.
In August 2020, Navalnyi had a painful illness on his way from Tomsk in Siberia to Moscow.
The Russian security service’s FSB is suspected to have been behind the poisoning.
According to European experts, Navalnyi was poisoned by a neurotoxin in Novichok. The Soviet Union developed Novichok as a chemical weapon during the Cold War.
Navalnyi survived probably because the captain landed in Omsk instead of Moscow. There, the opposition leader got to the hospital. He was later treated in Berlin.
Navalnyi and his team are known for, among other things, videos exposing the corruption of Russian policymakers.
2. Nervous venom in the door handle in Salisbury
Another well-known Novitch case in recent years is the poisoning in Salisbury, Britain.
British authorities suspect two Russian military intelligence workers spread neurotoxin to former Russian agent Sergei Skripalin on the handle of the front door in March 2018. A third Russian man has also been charged with poisoning.
Both Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia Skripal were hospitalized for weeks due to severe symptoms of poisoning.
Later that year the British Dawn Sturgess died when he was exposed to a neurotoxin stored in a perfume bottle. Sturgess’ boyfriend Charlie Rowley found a discarded bottle of perfume and gave it as a gift to his girlfriend.
Scripal poisoners are suspected of using the bottle.
3. Tea took the life of a former KGB agent
Litvinenko died in 2006 in London after drinking green tea mixed with radioactive polonium-210 poison.
Both the EIT and the British consider the former KGB bodyguard to be the perpetrators of the murder Andrei Lugovoi and another Russian Dmitri Kovtunia. Men have always denied their guilt.
Alexander Litvinenko had left Russia after being caught by Russian authorities after publicly speaking about FSB agents’ plans to assassinate a major businessman Boris Berezovski.
4. The face of the Ukrainian presidential candidate swelled
One of the known suspected poisonings occurred in Ukraine in 2004. Westernist Viktor Yushchenko ran for president but suddenly fell ill during the election campaign.
The suspected poisoning caused drastic changes in Yushchenko’s face. His head swelled and the color of his face changed. According to doctors, the symptoms were due to dioxin poisoning.
The presidential candidate said he had been poisoned during the meal. The poison has not been officially identified.
Yushchenko won the presidential election after major protests in a renewed second round. His main opponent was Russia-backed Viktor Yanukovych.
5. The reporter who criticized Putin lost consciousness on the plane
In September 2004, a reporter Anna Politkovskaya was on his way to Beslan in North Ossetia, Russia, where a kidnapping was taking place.
In Rostov, Politkovskaya was rushed to a hospital where she had just survived. The reporter suspected he had been poisoned.
Politkovskaya was shot dead two years later in the stairwell of her home in Moscow.
6. Vladimir Kara-Murza fell into a coma twice
This was the second time Kara-Murza had been in a hospital. Also in 2015, Kara-Murza fell into a coma when the suspected poisoning severely damaged her kidneys, among other things.
Kara-Murza believes the poisonings were revenge for her political activities. It is not known exactly what poison he got and how he was exposed to it.
Kara-Murza was an opposition politician Boris Nemtsovin friend and helper. For years, Nemtsov criticized loudly Vladimir Putinia. Nemtsov was shot in front of the Kremlin in February 2015.
Yesterday Monday Bellingcat wrote (moving to another service)that Nemtsov had been followed before his death by the same FSB security service group as Alexei Navalny and Vladimir Kara-Murza before they developed symptoms of poisoning.