2023-08-19 05:03:39
The Russian opposition journalist, Elena Kostyuchenko, revealed the details of the mysterious illness that she suffered from last fall, and the health problems she faced during that period, which prompted the German authorities to open investigations into suspicions of her exposure to “poisoning”.
The Russian journalist explained that after being warned of Russian plans to assassinate her, she fled to Germany, and during one of her trips on the train in which she traveled to Munich, she suddenly found herself sweating, soaked in a strange smell, and suffering from perception difficulties, followed by a long and mysterious illness from which she did not recover until today, according toCNN“.
And the German authorities announced the opening of a new investigation into the incident, after they closed, last May, a preliminary investigation due to lack of evidence.
A spokesman for the German Public Prosecutor, Sebastian Buechner, confirmed to the network: “The public prosecutor in Berlin is investigating an unknown perpetrator. The case is being treated as attempted murder,” adding that the reopening of the case “is due to new considerations and not to finding evidence.”
Kostyuchenko had been working for the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta for 17 years, and after the start of the Russian invasion, the newspaper sent her on assignment to Ukraine.
In March 2022, she said she received information from a Ukrainian military source about Russian plans to assassinate her, and was told she must leave Ukraine immediately. When she could no longer return to her country, she decided to flee to Germany.
The Russian journalist revealed that she had a strange disease during one of the train trips between Berlin and Munich after visiting the Ukrainian embassy in October 2022, where she had severe sweating, accompanied by a strong and strange smell of sweat, and an inability to concentrate or remember.
Her condition rapidly deteriorated during the following days, and she developed symptoms including severe stomach pain, nausea, shortness of breath, and swelling.
The Russian journalist said that she resorted to a number of doctors, after she had been diagnosed with pain, but they all failed to diagnose her condition and determine the cause of her suffering.
In recent years, poison attacks have been carried out inside and outside Russia against opponents of Russian power. Moscow denies any responsibility for its secret services.
Among the most famous poisoning cases was the opposition politician Alexei Navalny, against whom European laboratories confirmed the use of a Novichok-type poison developed by the former Soviet Union for military purposes.
On Thursday, the United States imposed sanctions on four agents of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), for their participation in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, three years ago.
A statement stressed that the United States “will continue to use the powers at its disposal to promote accountability for such atrocities.”
The nerve agent was also used in the attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in 2018 in Salisbury, Britain.
At the time, the British authorities asserted that “only the Russian state has the technical means, experience and motive” to carry out a similar attack.
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