Roman Abramovich ‘may have been poisoned with WW1 gas’

Modified version of a gas used in WWI trench warfare may have been used on the oligarch, former developer of Russian chemical weapons says.

Roman Abramovich may have been poisoned with a modified version of a gas used in trench warfare during the First World War, a former developer of Russian chemical weapons has said.

Vladimir Uglev, a Russian chemist who helped create the novichok nerve agents, told The Times that Abramovich may have been poisoned with a variant of chloropicrin, a toxin used as an insecticide in agriculture.

Christo Grozev, an investigative journalist at Bellingcat, first pointed to the substance after Abramovich and the Ukrainian negotiators complained of peeling skin and loss of eyesight following peace talks.

The poisoning allegedly took place during discussions on March 3 in Ukraine. Rustem Umerov, a Ukrainian MP representing President Zelensky during the informal negotiations, became ill, as did another Russian businessman on the team. There have been suggestions that the three may have ingested the toxin through chocolate and water laced with poison.

This theory has been complicated by the fact that a fourth member of the informal negotiating team did not develop any symptoms despite eating the same chocolate and drinking the same water, according to Bellingcat.

The experts said the dosage and type of toxin used was likely insufficient to cause life-threatening damage, and most likely was intended to scare the victims as opposed to cause permanent damage. The victims said they were not aware of who might have had an interest in an attack

— Bellingcat (@bellingcat) March 28, 2022

Chloropicrin was manufactured for use in the trenches during the First World War. It was stockpiled during the Second World War and has been used as a tear gas for riot control.

Although not as lethal as other poisons, it can cause itchy eyes, lung damage and vomiting when inhaled. The toxin is used in agriculture as a pesticide and as a soil fumigant.

Uglev, 74, helped to create novichok agents in a secret laboratory in the closed city of Shikhany, Russia, during the Soviet Union era. His accounts of working on the program have contradicted the official Kremlin line that the country never had any chemical weapons program to develop nerve agents.

“The information I have at the moment allows me to come to the conclusion that the poisoning came from a military-grade toxin,” he said.

“Specialists, who have spoken to Christo Grozev, have suggested that it was chloropicrin. But chloropicrin has a very strong, specific and overwhelming smell, making it very difficult to use in poisonings without it being detected.

“Possibly, it was some sort of less detectable form of chloropicrin. But I have not worked in the industry since 1990, and I was never responsible for matters relating to the development and use of these sorts of toxins.”

Uglev was responding to a report in which Grozev laid out the most plausible explanations for the poisoning.

In an interview with Popular Politics, a Russian-language YouTube channel, Grozev had described how toxicology experts who carried out a medical examination of the delegates agreed that their symptoms were consistent with chloropicrin poisoning.

“All the experts … said that it was not a coincidence, it was not food poisoning and it was not an allergic reaction,” he said. Asked what poison the experts believed was used, Grozev said: “Chloropicrin – an agent that corresponds with nearly all of the reported symptoms.” He added: “The theory’s only drawback is that chloropicrin usually smells quite strongly, which means it is quite hard to give it to someone without it being noticed. Another suggestion advanced by one very knowledgeable specialist was that it could have been novichok, which in small doses causes similar symptoms.”

Ukraine sees Abramovich as, in effect, a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow who helps to prevent misunderstandings between the two sides, Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said yesterday (Wednesday).

“It has long been known in the media space that he is an extremely effective mediator between delegations and partially moderates the process so that there is no misunderstanding at the outset,” he told a televised briefing.

Podolyak played down as speculative “conspiracy theories” the reports that Abramovich had been poisoned, saying such reports were meant to put pressure on the delegations.

The Times