Investigation opened in Germany after alleged poisoning of Russian dissidents | Abroad

“An investigation has been opened on the basis of the information available,” the Berlin police spokesman told the newspaper.

Russian investigative media Agentstvo published a study last week reporting health problems in two participants in a meeting of Russian dissidents on April 29 and 30, around the businessman and opponent Mikhail Khodorovski.

The first participant, described as a journalist who recently left Russia, experienced some symptoms at the event, which were not developed. She said they may have started before the event. The woman presented herself to the Berlin hospital where Russian opponent Aleksej Navalny was treated in 2020 due to poisoning.

The second participant is Natalia Arno, the director of the NGO Free Russia Foundation in the United States, where she has lived for ten years after having had to leave Russia. The woman was in Berlin at the end of April and then traveled to Prague. There, according to Agentstvo, she experienced symptoms and she also noticed that her hotel room was being opened.

Earlier this week, Arno wrote on Facebook that she felt “sharp pain” and “numbness”. The first “strange symptoms” began after he arrived in Prague. The symptoms haven’t gone away yet, but Arno is feeling better, she wrote.

In recent years, several poisonings have taken place in Russia and abroad against Russian opponents. Moscow denies any involvement of its secret services in these attacks.

European laboratories have confirmed that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union for military purposes.