A group of German forensics said Monday that the poisoning of Roman Abramovich and the two Ukrainian negotiators was not intended to assassinate them but to leave a warning. The incident occurred after a meeting in the Ukrainian capital this month, when the billionaire owner of the English football club Chelsea and at least two senior officials of the Ukrainian negotiating team “developed symptoms”.
The investigation into the poisoning was carried out by journalist Christo Grozev, who works at the German portal Bellingcat. “They didn't intend to kill, it was just a warning,” Grozev said.
The symptoms described, among which pointed out red and watery eyes, peeling of the face and hands, then improved “and their lives are not in danger,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper's sources spoke of possible poisoning and suspected hardliners in Moscow who, they say, want to sabotage talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
“It was during his first trip to Kiev. Roman lost his sight for several hours. In Turkey, they treated him and Rustem in a clinic,” said the source quoted by 'The Guardian'.
A relative of Roman Abramovich, however, said he was not sure of the identity of those who had targeted the group, specifies the Wall Street Journal, further stating that Western experts could not determine the cause of the symptoms.
The newspaper confirms in any case that the Russian oligarch, considered close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and already subject to sanctions by the European Union and the United Kingdom following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, began traveling between Moscow and Ukraine as part of a mediation to end the conflict.
Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky said on Sunday that several Russian businessmen, including Abramovich, had offered to help Ukraine.
The Wall Street Journal revealed last week that the Ukrainian president had asked his US counterpart, Joe Biden, not to sanction Abramovich, arguing that he could play a role in the peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
And, in fact, the billionaire's name does not appear at this time on the list of oligarchs of Washington sanctioned oligarchs, expanded several times since the Russian offensive launched on February 24, the last one last Thursday.
Abramovich's state of health finally improved and he returned to Kiev to participate in the next round of negotiations. On Tuesday, the fourth round of informal contacts between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations begins in Istanbul.
Cases of poisoning
The most recent case of poisoning an enemy of the Kremlin was that of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was on the verge of death and received treatment in Berlin. But there is a long history of chemical attacks or other harmful substances linked to Russian intelligence.
In September 2018, the target of an attack was Pyotr Verzilov, an artist, editor of a blog and member of the activist group Pussy Riot, who ended up in an intensive care unit and was also transferred to Berlin for treatment. According to the Meduza portal, “a powerful neurotransmitter blocker is what apparently left Pyotr Verzilov in critical condition.” His family said he is “1,000% sure” that he did not take anticholinergic medications of his will.
A few months earlier, in March 2018, another case occurred that went around the world. Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, appeared dying on the bench of a square in Salisbury, UK, along with his 33-year-old daughter Yulia. Toxicological studies found that both had traces of novichok, a powerful nerve agent developed in the 1970s by the Soviet Union. Both he and his daughter battled for several weeks for their health, but they were able to survive.
Activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, a journalist and Kremlin opponent, suffered not one but two alleged attacks. After making multiple complaints against pro-government figures at the Open Russia Foundation, Kara-Murza was left in a coma in 2015 with multiple failure of vital organs. He needed respiratory assistance and dialysis, but he survived. Two years later, he claimed that he suffered a second poisoning that left him hospitalized for several months, first in Russia and then in the United States, where he received blood transfusions.
One of the most resounding cases occurred in 2006, when former KGB colonel Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London with the isotope polonium 210. British judge Robert Owen felt that Putin “probably approved” a secret service plan, already called the FSB, to kill his sonic detractor. In November of that year, the former Russian spy, openly confronted with Putin, died at the age of 43 in a London hospital. Three weeks earlier, this former secret service man had tea with another former Russian agent, Andrei Lugovoi. His death provoked a diplomatic crisis between London and Moscow, which always refused to extradite the prime suspect.
(With information from AFP and Europa Press)
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