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Russian ex-PM has mystery illness
BBC ^ | 30 November 2006

Posted on 11/30/2006 5:09:40 AM PST by Mrs Ivan

Former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar is being treated in a Moscow hospital after falling violently ill on a trip to Ireland on 24 November. Speculation is rife that he may have been poisoned. He fell ill a day after former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died of radiation poisoning in London.

Mr Gaidar's daughter Maria said "doctors incline towards the view that his symptoms... indicate poisoning".

Mr Gaidar was rushed to intensive care in Dublin, then flown to Moscow.

Mr Gaidar, 50, suffered from a nose bleed and vomiting before fainting in Dublin last Friday, during a visit to promote his book The Death of Empire: Lessons for Contemporary Russia.

His daughter was quoted as saying he had eaten "a simple breakfast of fruit salad and a cup of tea".

Economic role

He has criticised President Vladimir Putin's economic policies, but is not regarded as a prominent political opponent of the Russian leader.

His programme of economic "shock therapy" under Mr Putin's predecessor Boris Yeltsin angered many Russians who saw their savings devalued. The programme lifted price controls and launched large-scale privatisations.

Maria Gaidar said she expected doctors to announce their diagnosis of his mystery illness on Friday.

"His condition is satisfactory and he is speaking, but he looks very bad - he looks pale and thin," she told Reuters news agency.

Anatoly Chubais, who oversaw Boris Yeltsin's privatisation programme and now heads Russia's electricity monopoly Unified Energy Systems, saw his illness as suspicious.

He linked the case to Mr Litvinenko's death and last month's murder of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya - both of whom were fierce critics of President Putin.

"The theory of attempted poisoning, attempted murder should undoubtedly be considered seriously," Mr Chubais told state-run Rossiya television.

"A chain of deaths of... Politkovskaya, Litvinenko and Gaidar would perfectly correspond to the interests and vision of those people who are openly talking about a forceful, unconstitutional change of power in Russia as a possible option."


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: coincidence; gaidar; poisoning; russia
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To: Mrs Ivan

Gorge less, fat boy!

21 posted on 11/30/2006 5:58:01 AM PST by Freelance Warrior
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To: Mrs Ivan
Russia is already suffering from declining life expectancy...and now Putin gets it into his head to start poisoning everyone he doesn't like. Who does he think he is anyway, Alexander VI?

Putin visited Crawford, Texas...maybe the Secret Service needs to check the President's property for radiation.

22 posted on 11/30/2006 6:16:47 AM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: Jedi Master Pikachu

What method do you propose? Arkancide? You sound like an apologist for Putin, to me.


23 posted on 11/30/2006 6:25:51 AM PST by expatpat
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To: Mrs Ivan

On a more general note, pffifffle, now we have to worry about a coup or some crapola like that in Russia on top of everything else.


24 posted on 11/30/2006 6:37:51 AM PST by wouldntbprudent (If you can: Contribute more (babies) to the next generation of God-fearing American Patriots!)
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To: pax_et_bonum

Or maybe the use of some of these radiologic/biologic agents is very hard to control. For example, they might have been deployed in a certain situation, but their effects unintentionally caught up other people.

Say you are trying to poison someone with a radiological plug of some sort. That thing has to be transported, deployed, etc. In all that time it could be leaking radiation and poisoning bystanders (innocent and not innocent).


25 posted on 11/30/2006 6:41:04 AM PST by wouldntbprudent (If you can: Contribute more (babies) to the next generation of God-fearing American Patriots!)
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To: Mrs Ivan
Yegor Gaidar is being treated in a Moscow hospital after falling violently ill on a trip to Ireland

It's obvious. The toxin is Guinness-249, the deadly isotope produced when 10-12 pints of Guinness are bombarded with 2-3 whiskys after midnight.

At least, that's what someone told me in the pub last time I was in ireland. I think.

26 posted on 11/30/2006 6:43:18 AM PST by JedForbes
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To: JedForbes
It's obvious. The toxin is Guinness-249, the deadly isotope produced when 10-12 pints of Guinness are bombarded with 2-3 whiskys after midnight.

Lol!

27 posted on 11/30/2006 8:02:26 AM PST by Mrs Ivan (English, and damned proud of it.)
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To: Mrs Ivan
Chernobylcide

sw

28 posted on 11/30/2006 8:07:46 AM PST by spectre (Spectre's wife)
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To: Mrs Ivan
I have read that Gaydar suffered from the dehydration which caused a hypertonic stroke. Those could be the symptoms of a drunken binge, nothing more.
29 posted on 11/30/2006 9:32:27 AM PST by asd145
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To: All

More on the same topic:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1746478/posts?page=1


30 posted on 11/30/2006 11:46:58 AM PST by Mrs Ivan (English, and damned proud of it.)
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To: Jedi Master Pikachu

I think the whole point is for the world to see what going against Putin will get you.


31 posted on 12/01/2006 12:34:56 PM PST by B. Chezwick
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