Russian rights lawyer 'poisoned'

BBC ^ | Tuesday, 14 October 2008 | n/a

[fishhound]

French police have opened an inquiry into allegations that a prominent Russian human rights lawyer may have been poisoned in Strasbourg on Monday.

Karina Moskalenko, who represents some of the Kremlin's best known critics, fell ill after finding a substance similar to mercury inside her car.

She and members of her family were later treated for nausea and headaches.

Prosecutors said there had not been enough of the substance to endanger life, but that more tests were needed.

Ms Moskalenko's clients include the jailed former Russian oil tycoon, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and the family of the murdered journalist, Anna Politkovskaya.

The lawyer said on Tuesday that her illness had meant she was unable to travel to Moscow on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing at the trial of three men charged with Ms Politkovskaya's murder.

[Rudder]

mercury inside her car

"Ridin' my Mercury, up and down that road..."

[Steely Tom]

In 1996, a chemist named Karen Wetterhahn, a professor of chemistry at Dartmouth, was poisoned by absorbing dimethylmercury through her skin. She had been working with the chemical in her lab, and was observing all precautions, including gloves and a fume hood. She was killed by one or two drops of the chemical which had penetrated the gloves and were absorbed through her skin.

I would think that a car could be contaminated by one of the organic forms of Hg, and that some of it could have been "reduced" (if that is the right term) to form visible metallic mercury by exposure to something (atmospheric pollution maybe?). Elemental Hg is not easily absorbed by the body although just as poisonous as monomethelmercury.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Another KGB hit using poison.

[Former Dodger]

I would like to suggest a new word for our use in cases like this:
Putinized.

Of cours this can then be broken down into other grammatical forms as needed: Putinization, Putinaceous, etc.

[Scotswife]

Waiting for Putin’s statement...”c’mon! It’s a setup! I was framed!”

[ohioman]

I wish they would target Soros.