The allegation that the oligarch Roman Abramovich, who mediated the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, and two Ukrainians were poisoned in Kyiv, caused confusion. And was Abramovich poisoned? For the answer, it is necessary to look both at the present and a little bit of the past.
The world is talking about the Poisoning news of the American Wall Street Journal about the Ukraine peace talks. According to the claims of the sources who made a statement to the newspaper, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian negotiators, who are conducting peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, started to exhibit some strange symptoms that were considered signs of poisoning, but not life-threatening, after the talks held in Kyiv on 3 March.
In addition to the symptoms such as redness of the eyes, constant burning and tearing in the eyes, peeling of the skin of the face and hands, it was also claimed that Abramovic lost his sight for a few hours and then had difficulty eating.
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While the health status of all of the delegates in question improved, Western experts stated that it is not possible to say for sure whether the poisoning was caused by chemical, biological, or some kind of electromagnetic radiation. On the other hand, since the delegates were late in giving examples to toxicology experts, it was not possible to confirm whether there was real poisoning.
Sources close to the event claimed that the delegates were poisoned by some from Russia’s hawkish wing to sabotage talks that would end the war. A name from Abramovic’s close circle said that it was not clear who the target group was.
Christo Grozev, a member of the investigative journalism group Bellingcat, which is investigating the poisoning, told the Wall Street Journal, describing the attack as a “warning shot”. “The aim was not to kill, it was just a warning.“
Bellingcat emphasized that Abramovic and two other people, who are thought to have been poisoned, only consumed chocolate and water before symptoms appeared. It was stated that the delegates fell ill in their apartment in Kyiv, where they went after the meeting.
POISONS DEVELOPED IN THE ‘CAMERA’ HAD A COMMON FEATURE
Such an allegation of poisoning against one of a country’s most internationally recognized citizens would normally be seen as fiction befitting a spy novel. But things change when it comes to Russia. Because there are hundreds of news in the archives where the words “Russia” and “poisoning” come together. Therefore, when it comes to the Kremlin, the expectation about the truth of the allegations is rising.
Russia’s first use of various poisons as a weapon was thanks to the poison laboratory called Lab X, which Vladimir Lenin established in Moscow in 1921. For decades, the focus was on developing hard-to-detect poisons in this lab, which Soviet Union security agents refer to as the “Camera” or “room” for short. According to sources who left the Soviet Union and fled to Western countries, poisons developed in Camera during the reign of Josef Stalin were tested on prisoners in gulags (criminal labor camps).