According to The Wall Street Journal, symptoms included red eyes, painful and constant tearing, and flaking of the skin on the face and hands. Those who have experienced symptoms of poisoning have reportedly recovered.
The oligarch Roman Abramovich and two participants in peace talks on behalf of Ukraine suffered suspected symptoms of poisoning after the meeting.
The symptoms appeared after the peace talks in Kiev earlier in March. The Bellingcat group, which is engaged in investigative journalism, reports this.
Abramovich, a Russian, and at least two other participants in the talks experienced symptoms after the meeting on the night of the third and fourth days of March.
Suspected cases of poisoning have also been reported in a U.S. newspaper The Wall Street Journal. According to the magazine, symptoms included red eyes, painful and constant tearing, and flaking of the skin on the face and hands. According to the newspaper, Abramovich would have lost his sight for a few hours due to the symptoms.
Also BBC says Abramovich would have suffered from symptoms of poisoning, citing sources. According to BBC sources, the oligarch has now recovered. Others who have experienced symptoms of poisoning have also reportedly recovered.
However, according to the U.S. authorities, their intelligence believes the symptoms were due to environmental reasons. The authority, which spoke anonymously, believed that this would not be poisoning. The matter was reported by Reuters.
Bellingcatin according to three members of the negotiating team returned to the apartment in Kiev after the meeting. The symptoms started in the apartment. The symptom lasted until morning.
Bellingcat did not specify whether Abramovich was one of the people who went to the Kiev apartment.
The men who had experienced the symptoms had only eaten chocolate and drank water in the previous hours. The fourth member of the negotiating team, who had also consumed only chocolate and water, found no symptoms.
According to Bellingcat, their researcher was asked to help with a study conducted by two chemical weapons experts. Based on the study, experts believe the symptoms are due to poisoning from an unidentified chemical weapon. However, an accurate determination of the cause of the symptoms was not possible due to the lack of laboratory equipment available at the time of the study.
According to Bellingcat, another, less likely alternative to the symptoms is microwave radiation.
According to experts, the poison used and its dosage would not have been sufficient for life-threatening poisoning. They believe the intent was to intimidate those poisoned with permanent injuries.
Symptomatic could not assess who would be behind the possible poisoning.
The Kremlin did not respond immediately to a request to comment on the suspected poisoning, the Wall Street Journal said.
To Russia is president Vladimir Putin during the reign, there were strong suspicions in numerous cases of poisoning against opponents of the current regime or otherwise unpleasant to it.
The best-known victim of poisoning is Russia’s most prominent opposition figure Aleksei Navalnyi. In August 2020, he became seriously ill on his way to Russia: he was eventually transported to Berlin for treatment.
The German government confirmed that Navalnyi had been poisoned with the neurotoxin novitokok. Novitokok poisons were originally developed in the Soviet Union.
With Novitokok poisons attempts were also made to assassinate a Russian colonel and a double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julija Skripal. They were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury, UK in March 2018.
According to British intelligence, the poison used in the Scripals came from a military base in Russia.
In the 21st century Russian intelligence officer has also been poisoned by the Russian regime, Aleksandr Litvinenkowho died of polonium poisoning in London in 2006, and the recent president of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenkowhich suffered serious dioxin poisoning during the 2004 election campaign.