Since October of last year, there has been a series of mysterious poisonings of Russians who have left the Russian Federation. Two journalists and the head of the Free Russia Foundation were injured.
The journalist was poisoned in Munich in October 2022 Novaya Gazeta And jellyfish Elena Kostyuchenko. At the same time, his colleague, a correspondent, faced almost identical symptoms. Echo of Moscow Irina Babloyan in Tbilisi. And in April of this year, the head of the fund experienced a serious illness Free Russia Natalya Arno. Edition The Insider collected all information and made available data public to warn activists and journalists to leave the Russian Federation about a possible threat.
“Tired and blood in the urine”
Elena Kostyuchenko was forced to move to Munich after a series of reports from Ukraine. In particular, he covered the first war crimes of the Russian army in Kherson. Kostyuchenko was also going to Mariupol in April 2022, but he had to cancel the trip due to the fact that the “Kadyrovtsy” received an order to kill him.
The woman moved to Berlin and tried to apply for a Ukrainian visa at the Consulate General of Munich. In October 2022, after lunch in one of the cafes, Kostyuchenko felt bad. The symptoms, he said, were a strong odor of sweat, “the smell of rotten fruit,” insomnia, headaches and stomachaches, weakness, confusion, and persistent nausea.
“A blood test showed that the liver enzymes ALT and AST were five times higher than normal, and there was blood in the urine,” said Kostyuchenko.
After a month of examination, the doctor who observed the reporter at the local clinic said that they did not rule out all the possible reasons for the deterioration of his health, except for poisoning, and offered to take tests for toxin in the clinic. Charité.
After this suspicion of poisoning, according to Kostyuchenko, he was questioned by the criminal police of Berlin for nine hours, the apartment and things were checked for radiation.
At the clinic itself Charité The reporter never got the results of the toxicology test. At first, law enforcement officials told his lawyer that the doctors “misunderstood the police” and tested the blood only for alcohol, drugs and drug concentration. And then the woman’s “too thick” blood prevented the tests.
However, the source of the publication The Insider said law enforcement officials still conducted mass spectrometry of Kostyuchenko’s blood. The samples were probably taken from the Charité clinic, where the journalist took a toxicology test.
The prosecutor’s office informed the lawyer on May 2, 2023 that they were closing the case because nothing could be found. Later, in July, according to The Insiderthe case was reopened for new tests, but what was found in Kostyuchenko’s blood was not reported to the police.
“Lodoni turned red”
journalist Echo of Moscow Irina Babloyan moved from Moscow to Tbilisi in mid-October. On October 25, Irina felt bad. According to him, he, like Kostyuchenko, had severe weakness and dizziness. On October 26, the palmar-plantar syndrome manifested itself – the palms turned purple and burned as if you were holding fire in your hands, the same with the feet.
“You lie, but the feeling of fatigue does not go away, it seems that you cannot rest. I felt that the body no longer belonged to me, it became cottony, there was great anxiety,” Babloyan recalled.
The journalist did not take these symptoms seriously, so he donated blood for toxicological analysis in Berlin just a few months later. The results, according to him, did not come to him – to Charité told that his blood samples had “disappeared”, the police arrived and carefully questioned Babloyan.
Poisoning with a “neurotoxic substance”
Foundation President Free Russia On May 2, 2023, Natalia Arno took part in a non-public and unannounced event in Prague. After this event, the woman found the door of her room open, and in the room itself she felt “the smell of some kind of perfume.”
The first symptoms appeared, according to Arno, at 5 in the morning – his teeth and tongue hurt. Then the pain began to “walk” through the body – in the ears, then in the chest, then under the armpits, then, after a few minutes, along the spine. Arno felt the “mineral taste” in his mouth, everything went blurry in his eyes, his arms and legs were numb, as it happens when they are numb.
The woman flew to Washington and on May 4, 2023, she passed blood tests. The doctors, according to him, only told him that he was “poisoned by a neurotoxic substance,” but did not specify which one.
The Insider spoke with an expert who previously worked on the development of toxic substances. In his opinion, the symptoms described, including the characteristic numbness, point to a nerve agent. The class of such substances includes all kinds Newbiebut by these symptoms alone it is impossible to determine the class of substance.
“When you brush your teeth, the poison can enter the micropores in the oral cavity and begin to act within a few hours – the nerve poison in this case can be very painful,” said the expert.
Perhaps this poisoning is not the first attempt, journalists say The Insider. At the end of July 2021, Arno was in the west in Vilnius, where he met with activists. One day there, he also smelled perfume in his room, and soon he became feverish, weak, and had a rash all over his body.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.