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MOSCOW - Strong evidence has emerged that the former Russian Prime Minister, Yegor Gaidar, a leading liberal and Kremlin critic, may have been poisoned just a day after the ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko died in London.
Gaidar became seriously ill while on business in Dublin last week. The 50-year-old apparently fell ill with violent vomiting after consuming a fruit salad and a cup of tea at an academic conference and was rushed to hospital.
The Irish Government says it is investigating the incident amid calls for radiation tests to be carried out at the locations visited by the former premier.
The life of Gaidar, a prominent economist, was said to have hung by a thread for a while but he is now reported to be back in Moscow and recovering in a hospital at an undisclosed location.
His daughter, Maria, said her father had lost half his body weight but his life was now out of danger.
One of Gaidar's aides has said doctors strongly suspected he had been poisoned. "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], Valery Natarov said. "So, obviously, we're talking about poisoning [and] it was not natural poisoning."
It was not known last night if he has been exposed to a radioactive substance such as polonium 210, the lethal isotope which poisoned Litvinenko.
Gaidar was in Ireland to publicise a new book on contemporary Russia, The Death of Empire.
On Friday, November 24 he travelled north of Dublin to address a two-day conference at the history department of the National University of Ireland at Maynooth in County Kildare.
He became ill while attending the meeting and was rushed to hospital in Dublin, where he was treated after violent vomiting.
The former premier suffers from diabetes and his condition was initially thought to have caused his condition. He then returned to the conference but again had to leave after falling ill a second time.
He was treated in hospital until Monday, when he was considered well enough to return to Moscow.
Gaidar was the architect of Russia's unpopular tough market reforms in the early 1990s and, though now far removed from frontline politics, he has regularly spoken out critically about the direction that Russia is taking.
Anatoly Chubais, Chief Executive of electricity giant UES, a man who has also survived an attempt on his life, said he was convinced that Gaidar had been poisoned.
He said he saw a connection with the death of Litvinenko and the murder last month of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, another fierce Kremlin critic.
"The deadly triangle - Politkovskaya, Litvinenko and Gaidar - would have been very desirable for some people who are seeking an unconstitutional and forceful change of power in Russia."
He made it clear though that he did not think the Russian authorities were involved in Gaidar's poisoning. President Vladimir Putin has already phoned the heavyweight liberal to wish him a speedy recovery.
- INDEPENDENT
