There is a lot of speculation going on right now about whether or not Russian oligarchs have been poisoned.
Some people are saying that this could be the start of a new Cold War, and others are saying that this is just a ploy by the Russian government to distract from their internal problems.
No one knows for sure what is going on, but one thing is for sure: this story is grabbing attention!
Have Russian Oligarchs Been Poisoned?
According to a fresh allegation released on Monday, a Russian oligarch and at least two senior Ukrainian diplomats were allegedly poisoned during peace negotiations earlier this month.
According to the Wall Street Journal, which cited “people familiar with the case,” the Ukrainian peace negotiators and Roman Abramovich, a personal friend of Vladimir Putin, both experienced “red eyes, trouble eating: continual and painful tearing, and peeling skin on their cheeks and hands” following a meeting in Kyiv.
The other negotiators, including Ukrainian officials and Ukrainian lawmaker Rustem Umerov, and Abramovich, who is purportedly acting as a go-between between President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, escaped the apparent attack and are doing well.
The Journal’s account was corroborated by Bellingcat, an open-source investigative news source, which claimed that the suspected poisoning took place during negotiations on March 3 and 4.
Three negotiators, including Umerov and Abramovich, held a meeting that afternoon, but as their symptoms started to manifest later that night, they withdrew to an apartment in Kyiv. According to Bellingcat, they had just had chocolate and water in the hour before being sick.
As Bellingcat wrote, “the specialists stated the dosage and type of toxin employed was likely insufficient to inflict life-threatening damage and most likely was designed to frighten the victims rather than create permanent damage.”
While peace discussions were scheduled to restart in Turkey on Tuesday, news of the alleged poisoning of the officials and Abramovich, who has been the target of international sanctions and is now broke after being forced to sell his Chelsea football team.
Zelenskyy promised Putin considerable concessions in exchange for an end to the disastrous month-long conflict.
Zelenskyy said that if Putin withdraws his forces from Ukraine, he would consider remaining neutral, staying out of NATO, and offering Moscow security guarantees in an interview with Russian media on Sunday that the Kremlin eventually opted to censor. Even as a relentless aircraft bombardment continues to wreak havoc across the nation, Russia’s invasion has stalled.
Even as their effort stalls and international sanctions strain Russia’s economy, the Kremlin has not shown any clear indications that it will take the off-ramp.
As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected Zelenskyy’s request for a meeting with Putin on Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “Unfortunately, we cannot say there have been any substantial advances or breakthroughs so far.”
According to the Washington Post, Lavrov told Serbian media that meeting and just exchanging opinions would be unproductive at this time.
Hopes for progress in the negotiations this week have been dashed by Russia’s stance, which has also raised worries that Putin is now attempting to divide Ukraine.
According to Kyrylo Budanov, head of the military intelligence of Ukraine, “the invaders will strive to pull the seized territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit it against sovereign Ukraine.” On Sunday, Zelenskyy reiterated his demands on the West to provide more assistance.
In a video speech, Putin praised liberation fighters in the destroyed city of Mariupol and pleaded with allies throughout the world to exhibit “one per cent of their courage.
” In a 90-minute discussion with unbiased Russian media, he also urged Russian citizens to “support the truth” regarding the issue. Roskomnadzor, the Kremlin’s censorship agency, promptly ordered Russian news outlets not to publish the interview, a move that Zelensky later claimed would be “ludicrous if it weren’t so tragic.”
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