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| Former Russian Prime Minister Poisoned |
| Yegor Gaidar suffers from an unknown substance |
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Ludwig De Braeckeleer (ludwig)  |
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Published 2006-12-01 07:35 (KST) |
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Former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar has been poisoned with an unknown substance. Gaidar was Russian acting prime minister from June to December 1992, under Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Gaidar was charged with the difficult task of transforming the Russia economy and implementing the much resented "economic shock therapy."
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FROM THE SECTION |
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| Today, Gaidar runs an economics think-tank in Moscow, which is often critical of Putin's policies.
"Doctors don't see a natural reason for the poisoning and they have not been able to detect any natural substance known to them" in Gaidar's body, said spokesman Valery Natarov. "So obviously we're talking about poisoning and it was not natural poisoning."
Last week, during a visit to Ireland to promote his book ("The Death of Empire: Lessons for Contemporary Russia"), Mr Gaidar suddenly became gravely ill. On Friday, he began vomiting and fainted during a conference. He was first treated in intensive care in Dublin and then flown to Moscow, where he is recovering in a hospital.
"I went up to him. He was lying on the floor unconscious. There was blood coming from his nose, he was vomiting blood. This went on for more than half an hour," his daughter said.
Gaidar had eaten a fruit salad and drunk a cup of tea. Russian doctors have ruled out food poisoning.
"The doctors think that they don't find any other reason of his condition that he was poisoned with some strange poison they cannot identify," Ms. Gaidar said.
She suggested that the poisoning would be politically motivated "because there are no personal or business reasons why someone would want to do that."
Anatoly Chubais, who served as Gaidar's vice-premier, believes that his poisoning and the recent deaths of Alexander Litvinenko and Anna Politkovskaya are connected.
"This deadly design would have been extremely attractive for those supporting unconstitutional, violent means of changing power in Russia," he said.
Ms. Gaidar agrees. "There is a possible connection between these two cases. I think that this could not be some action of Russian authorities, Russian regime, I don't really believe that," she said. Putin had telephoned Gaidar to wish him "a speedy recovery."
Andrei Lugovoy, who met with the poisoned ex-KGB officer on Nov. 1, once served as Gaidar's bodyguard.
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©2006 OhmyNews
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1. wwwww
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www , 2006-12-01 21:09
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