German police say they are investigating sudden and unexplained illnesses suffered by a Russian opposition activist and a Russian journalist who attended a conference in Berlin in April.
In a statement to the Radio Free Europe agency, the Berlin state police confirmed an earlier report by the German newspaper Die Welt that police were investigating illnesses reported by two people at the time of the conference, which was held from April 29 to 30.
The conference was organized by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former Russian oligarch who was imprisoned in Russia for years. He now lives outside of Russia and finances a series of initiatives opposed to the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A “case” has been opened and “the investigation is ongoing,” Berlin police said in a statement issued on May 21, but no further details were released.
Earlier this week, Russian news outlet Agentstvo reported that one of the people who fell ill was a Russian journalist who was being treated at Berlin’s Charité hospital. That hospital was known, among other things, for its involvement in the investigation into the nerve agent poisoning of opposition activist Aleksei Navalny in 2020.
The European Union and Britain then attacked six senior Russian officials and a state scientific research center for the poisoning.
The other person who reportedly fell ill was Natalia Arno, an American activist who runs an organization called the Free Russia Foundation.
In a Facebook post, Arno, who said he traveled to Prague after Berlin, described his problems as “sharp pain” and “numbness.” He has since recovered.
Agentsvo said the FBI had taken blood samples from Arno and was investigating his illness.
Separately, the Washington-based Atlantic Council think tank confirmed that one of its top officials, former ambassador John Herbst, had experienced symptoms it said were consistent with poisoning two years ago.
Herbst, who served as the US ambassador to Ukraine and Uzbekistan, fell ill in April 2021 and experienced symptoms “that could have been consistent with poisoning, including elevated blood levels of toxins.”
Doctors treated Herbst “effectively at the time, but were unable to definitively conclude that poisoning occurred,” the organization said.
The Atlantic Council also said that federal agents had taken blood samples from Herbst, but the lab results found nothing toxic.
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