German police investigate poisoning of two Russian journalists deported for criticizing Kremlin

German police are investigating Two exiled Russian journalists may have been poisoned After participating in the action of the Russian dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky In Berlin last April.

Both women reported symptoms of pain and numbness, local police explained, without providing further details.

The newspaper first reported the incident ‘Welt am Sonntag’It collects information from Russian portals agent A journalist posted a story on Facebook about the symptoms.

After the conference, he said he felt “strange symptoms” such as “sharp pain” for which he believed he might have been poisoned with a nerve agent. About Natalia ArnoDirector of the US-based NGO Free Russia Foundation, where he lived for 10 years after leaving Russia.

Arno was in Berlin at the end of April before going to Prague, where he was ill and had symptoms His hotel room was found ransackedReport agent.

The next day he flew to America, where he contacted a hospital and the authorities. On American soil, he reported what happened to the FBIAnd the officers started an investigation and tested the suspect material.

Arno discussed his problems – “sharp pain” and “numbness” – on Facebook this week, saying the first “strange symptoms” appeared before he arrived in Prague. He said he still has symptoms but is doing well.

“I didn’t think about the possibility of poisoning, I was determined to see a dentist urgently,” he wrote. He took the next flight back to America, and during the flight, The symptoms are “very strange, with numbness all over the body and pronounced.” He was admitted to the emergency department, but tests showed he was in good condition.

A second victim had similar symptoms after attending the Khodorkovsky conference on April 29 and 30. Subsequently, He was treated at the Charité Hospital in Berlin.

In recent years, many cases of poisoning of Russian dissidents have been found abroad and at home. One of the most egregious cases is that of opponent Alexei NavalnyHe was arrested after returning to Russia in January 2021 after receiving treatment in Berlin.

The Kremlin denied that its secret services were responsible for the poisoning cases. however, European laboratories confirmed that Navalny was poisoned with NovichokA Soviet-made nerve agent.

The nerve agent was also used in the 2018 assassination attempt on a former double agent. Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia in the English city of Salisbury.

The Skripal case further soured already strained relations between London and Moscow after the ex-spy’s 2006 death from radiation poisoning in the British capital. Alexander Litvinenko.

With information from Europa Press and Reuters

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