Russian exiles ‘poisoned’ at Berlin convention of Kremlin critic
Police in Germany has launched an investigation after a Russian journalist and an activist who participated in a Berlin convention reported well being issues which advised they could have been poisoned. Russian investigative news web site Agentstvo claims the pair grew to become sick after attending an occasion on April 29 and 30 organised by exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
A police spokesman instructed the Welt am Sonntag newspaper: “A file has been opened based on the information available.”
One of the victims, recognized as an unnamed journalist who had left Russia not too long ago, skilled unspecified signs in the course of the occasion, believing they could have begun earlier.
The particular person went to the Charite University Hospital in Berlin – the place Putin critic Alexei Navalny was handled after he was poisoned three years in the past.
A second sufferer was named as Natalia Arno, director of the NGO Free Russia Foundation within the United States, to the place she moved after being pressured to go away Russia.
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Arno was in Berlin on the finish of final month earlier than travelling to the Czech capital, Prague, the place she skilled signs and located that her resort room had been opened, reported Agentstvo.
Writing on Facebook, she described “sharp pain” and “numbness”.
The signs had since receded however had not but disappeared, she defined.
A press release revealed on the web site of the Free Russia Foundation on Thurday stated: “While touring overseas not too long ago, Free Russia Foundation’s president fell sick below circumstances that trigger nice concern.
“The matter is below investigation.
“The health and safety of our staff and beneficiaries are our paramount concern.
“Free Russia Foundation continues its work for a free, democratic, peaceable and affluent Russia, reintegrated into the worldwide group as a constructive and constructive actor.”
The Kremlin has been accused of orchestrating numerous poisoning attacks in recent years, not least one in which GRU operatives targeted former double agent Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia with the nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury in 2018.
The pair survived, but Dawn Sturgess, from nearby Amesbury, who weeks later sprayed the substance on her wrist believing it to be perfume, died.
Russia has all the time denied any involvement within the Salisbury poisonings – however the episode severely broken diplomatic relations between the UK Russian, even earlier than Putin ordered his invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
European laboratories have confirmed Mr Navalny, who has since returned to Russia and is now in jail, was additionally poisoned utilizing Novichok.
There is not any indication to date that Novichok was used within the newest incidents.