By Smartencyclopedia News with Agencies
In recent years, several poison attacks have been carried out abroad and in Russia against Russian opposition figures. Moscow denies any responsibility by its secret services.
German police announced on Sunday that they have opened an investigation into suspected poisoning following health issues reported by a Russian journalist and activist in exile.
“An investigation has been opened. The case is ongoing,” said a spokesperson for the Berlin police to the news agency AFP, confirming information from the newspaper Die Welt published on Saturday night.
The spokesperson did not provide further details about the ongoing investigation.
The Russian publication Agentstvo reported this week on the health problems reported by two participants in a meeting of Russian dissidents on April 29th and 30th.
One participant, described as a journalist who had recently left Russia, experienced unspecified symptoms during the event and said it may have started before.
According to Agentstvo, the journalist went to Berlin Charité Hospital, where Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned in August 2020, had been treated.
The second participant is Natalia Arno, director of the non-governmental organization Free Russia Foundation, based in the United States, where she has lived for 10 years after leaving Russia.
According to the report, Arno was in Berlin at the end of April and then traveled to Prague.
It was there, as reported by Agentstvo, that she experienced symptoms and also discovered that her hotel room had been accessed.
Arno posted a message on Facebook this week mentioning the problems she was experiencing, including “acute pain” and “numbness,” and stating that the first “strange symptoms” appeared before she arrived in Prague.
Several poison attacks have been carried out both inside and outside Russia against Russian opposition figures in recent years.
Moscow denies any responsibility by its secret services.
In the case of Alexei Navalny, European laboratories confirmed the use of a poison called ‘Novichok,’ developed by the USSR for military purposes.
Source: With Agencies