German police have launched an investigation into the alleged poisoning of Russian opposition figures in Berlin, according to media reports.
Two activists who took part in a conference organized by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a leading critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on April 29-30 subsequently reported poisoning symptoms, according to the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
German police confirmed to Welt and AFP that a probe is under way but did not mention Russia’s alleged involvement in the two incidents.
The head of the Free Russia Foundation, Natalia Arno, identified herself as one of the victims of the suspected poisoning. “There is a suspicion that during my recent trip to Europe I was poisoned, possibly by some nerve agent, one (or even more than one) Western intelligence service is investigating,” she wrote on Facebook.
Arno said she started feeling “strange symptoms” after smelling an unusual scent in her hotel room in an unidentified European city where she had held a public discussion, the activist recalled.
According to the Russian portal Agentstvo, another unidentified journalist who had left Russia experienced similar symptoms during the days of conference and was treated at the Charité hospital in Berlin.
Arno hinted that the Russian regime was behind the alleged poisoning. “The enemy has long tentacles, there is the opportunity to endanger us outside of Russia, so we need to be vigilant always, but not be afraid,” she wrote.
Moscow’s agents have a history of suspicions of poisoning the regime’s critics both at home and abroad. The Russian military intelligence GRU poisoned with Novichok nerve agent the former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, U.K., in 2018, according to British authorities.
Officials from Russian secret service FSB also were allegedly behind the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Russia in August 2020, after which he underwent long-term treatment and rehabilitation at the Charité hospital in Berlin.