2023-08-16 11:01:21
Guests of a restaurant on the Kleinhesseloher See in Munich. (icon picture)
Bild:
Keystone
Anyone who messes with the Russian regime lives dangerously – even abroad. A magazine describes the mysterious cases of three Russian women who were allegedly poisoned in three European countries.
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The Russian secret service is suspected of wanting to use poison to eliminate unwanted people abroad. The Russian portal “The Insider” met an activist and two journalists who are said to have also been victims of poison attacks – in Germany, the Czech Republic and Georgia. All three women survived, but are still struggling with health consequences to this day.
Strange, Natalija Arno thinks when she returns to the Garden Court Hotel in Prague on the evening of May 2nd. The door is unlocked. Everything in the room seems normal, only an intense cloud of perfume hangs in the air.
The maid was probably inattentive, she was told at the reception. She goes to sleep at around 2 a.m.
Three hours later, Arno wakes up with severe toothache. Her tongue hurts too. The pain spreads throughout the body over the next few hours – into the chest, under the arms and along the spine.
Back in Washington, where she lives, Arno immediately has a medical check-up. The doctors make a frightening diagnosis: the Russian woman was poisoned with a nerve agent. With what substance exactly is still unknown.
Natalija Arno is not just anyone. She is President of the Free Russia Foundation, which supports anti-Kremlin activists, journalists, and pro-democracy organizations. It’s obvious that she won’t make any friends in Russia with this. Like many compatriots, Arno had to leave her homeland for political reasons.
Kremlin critics live dangerously
But Russians who are critical of the government also live dangerously abroad. The case of the Russian ex-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, who barely survived an attack in Salisbury in southern England in 2018, made waves. Novichok, a neurotoxin developed in the Soviet Union, was used. The British authorities suspect the Russian secret service behind the crime.
The Russian platform «Insider» has now documented the stories of three women who have been poisoned, or at least are strongly suspected to have been, in Europe. Because the problem is that victims often notice something regarding poisoning too late. By the time the doctor visits, it is sometimes too late to detect traces of the toxic substances.
All three women survived, but are still feeling the effects of the alleged poison to this day. The German news magazine «The mirror» translated and published the research.
Moscow is said to have tried to kill two journalists and an activist, reports the Russian investigative website The Insider, which shared its research with SPIEGEL. The women are still suffering today. https://t.co/pwUoAYo8dV
— THE MIRROR (@derspiegel) August 15, 2023
Because the facts are so difficult, the “Insider” editorial team checked their research results with various experts. Among them are a former chemical weapons specialist and a researcher who was involved in a poison research program run by the Russian secret service FSB.
Poisoned in the Munich restaurant?
Journalist Yelena Kostyuchenko landed on the Kremlin’s radar for reports critical of the government. After a report in Ukraine in April, her editor-in-chief expressly warned her that she must not return to Moscow under any circumstances, as her life is in danger.
Kostyuchenko settled in Berlin and continued to work for the independent Russian online newspaper «Meduza». In order to get a visa for another trip to Ukraine, she had to travel to Munich, to the Ukrainian embassy.
On the way home to Berlin, she too was overcome by severe pain and began to sweat profusely. She only managed to get home with great difficulty. The next morning she was so dizzy that she might not get up. According to the “Spiegel” report, she also complained of pain in the spine. In addition, there was persistent exhaustion and dizziness.
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Nevertheless, Kostyuchenko only went to the doctor following ten days. A blood test showed elevated levels of two liver enzymes and blood was found in the urine. The doctors were concerned, gradually going through various diseases, from Covid, hepatitis, pelvic inflammatory disease. No diagnosis was confirmed.
Since then, the journalist has been racking her brains regarding who might have poisoned her and when. In any case, the memory of lunch in a Munich restaurant, which she visited with a friend, remains inedible. She had to drop half.
“As if you had fire in your hands”
The third case also concerns a journalist, Irina Babloyan, who works for the radio station «Ekho Moscow» and moved to Georgia in October 2022. She, too, suddenly developed puzzling symptoms similar to those of Kostyuchenko. In addition, her palms and feet turned purple and burned “as if one had fire in one’s hands”.
The journalist did not initially consult a toxicologist. It never occurred to her that she might have been poisoned.
The experts interviewed by the “Meduza” editorial team believe that the symptoms described by the two journalists match poisoning. However, this suspicion has not been proven.
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