Poisoned Letter

With the rise of ex-KGB policeman Vladimir Putin as Russia's president, old KGB methods have also been resurfacing - and not only within Russia's borders. The apparent interference of Russian security services in the Ukrainian election campaign has led to some authentic old-style skullduggery, according to a report in the Jamestown Foundation's Eurasia Daily Monitor:

The attempted poisoning of opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko last month has taken a new turn that suggests a return to Soviet-era KGB methods. A fake letter from the Austrian clinic that treated Yushchenko was sent to Reuters news agency and then widely disseminated abroad and by pro-presidential media in Ukraine.

Yesterday [October 5], Reuters issued a statement that denied the authenticity of the information it had distributed on September 28, which had been based on the fake statement purportedly drawn up by the clinic. Also on October 5, pro-presidential parliamentary factions issued a joint statement that drew on the fake clinic statement and subsequent news reports to call upon Yushchenko to withdraw his candidacy because he had misled everybody about his poisoning. They also called for adjourning the parliamentary commission established to investigate the poisoning (Ukrayinska pravda, October 5).

Yushchenko became extremely ill on September 6, with symptoms that resembled acute food poisoning (see, EDM September 20). His symptoms grew so severe that Yushchenko traveled to a clinic in Vienna, which stated that the mortality risk, had he arrived at the clinic 24-72 hours later, would have been 80%. After he returned from Vienna, Yushchenko spoke to the Ukrainian parliament where he accused the "authorities" of organizing an attempt on his life.

The rest of the report can be read here.

See also, in this blog:

State-sponsored Terrorism