New surreal twist to the peace negotiations to try to put an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As reported by the Wall Street Journalcorroborated by the intelligence firm Bellingcat, the Russian government tried to poison several members of the Ukrainian delegation in one of the negotiation sessions, together with the Russian businessman Román Abramóvich, the sanctioned owner of Chelsea, who would have been acting as a link between the parties .
According to Bellingcat, after the meetings held in Ukraine between March 3 and 4, Abramovich and “at least” two members of the Ukrainian delegation would have lost their vision for several hours, for which they were transferred to Turkey to be treated. . By the time everyone recovered, it was too late to get conclusive samples, but the symptoms would be “consistent with small quantity chemical weapons poisoning,” according to the intelligence firm.
The fact that nobody died would indicate that it could have been “a warning” or “an attempt to hinder the negotiations”, they conclude. At the time, progress was being made and both sides were sending positive messages. The day after that, a member of the Ukrainian delegation disappeared, allegedly murdered on suspicion of treason. Shortly after, the negotiations moved to Turkey, with a higher-level Russian delegation led by its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, leaving the country without any progress.
What is most surprising about this fact is Abramovich’s participation as a negotiator, whether formal or informal. The Russian tycoon was part of the closest circle of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who even asked him for advice to form his first governments and choose his temporary replacement -which ended up being Dimitri Medvedev- when the Russian Constitution forced him to formally leave the presidency during a legislature (in which he was prime minister).
The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelensky, has asked the US not to impose sanctions on Abramóvich, who has been flying for weeks from Moscow to kyiv, passing through Turkey, Poland or Belarus, acting as a liaison in the peace negotiations and to open humanitarian corridors and evacuate people trapped in the areas most heavily bombed by Russia.
During his presidency, Putin has been accused of ordering numerous poisonings of political rivals. In 2004, then-Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxins before facing the pro-Russian candidate supported by Putin (Yushenko survived and won). In 2006, former Russian secret agent Alexander Litvinenko died in London, poisoned by polonium 210. In 2018, former spy Sergei Skripal and his wife Yulia were poisoned with a Russian poison called Novichok in Salisbury, England, by two Russian agents who claimed to be there to “see Salisbury Cathedral”. And in 2020, the leader of the Russian opposition, Alexei Navalni, was also poisoned with Novichok, although he survived, after which he was arrested by the Russian police and sentenced to more than a decade in prison in a penal colony of maximum harshness. .
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