Did Putin Poison Ally Turned Ukraine-Russia War Critic After Kremlin Exodus?

Anatoly Chubais, a former Kremlin official, was diagnosed with a neurological illness on Monday, although many Western journalists speculate that Chubais may have been poisoned akin to the mysterious series of oligarch deaths that occurred after the Russia-Ukraine war’s start.

Chubais was recently hospitalized in Italy with debilitating symptoms that warranted close attention. After an interview with a Russian journalist, Chubais revealed that he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, but that Italian authorities were checking his blood to ensure that he was not poisoned, according to the Daily Beast.

“His condition has stabilized, but Anatoly Borisovich is still in intensive care, his legs and arms do not work well, his eye will not close, he has partial facial paralysis,” journalist Ksenia Sobchak said.

Chubais himself does not believe that he was poisoned, or that his neurological condition is in any way related to him quitting his post in March after the Russia-Ukraine war began. But the suspected poisoning does point towards a trend where former Russian officials and Russian oligarchs were found dead in suspicious circumstances recently, Deutsche Welle reported.

At least seven Russian oligarchs around the world, many of whom worked at the energy sector, were found dead under mysterious circumstances or alleged suicides since January of this year. Some of their families were also murdered in the aftermath in the gruesome killings.

However, despite the mysterious circumstances, none of them were critical to the Russia-Ukraine war effort like Chubais was, and none of them quit their post as an apparent protest against the war effort led by Putin.

“These are very understandable suspicions. But he doesn’t think so,” a source close to Chubais said.

The Kremlin has not commented on Chubais’ condition, although Putin has overtly lambasted many officials like Chubais who resigned from their post in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Any people, and particularly the Russian people, will always be able to tell the patriots from the scum and traitors and spit them out like a midge that accidentally flew into their mouths,” Putin said.