Was Putin Behind Poisoning of Roman Abramovich and Peace Envoy in Kyiv?
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Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of poisoning after attending a meeting in Kyiv March 3. The men, billionaire owner of Chelsea FC and at least two senior members of the Ukrainian delegation developed symptoms that included red eyes, constant and painful tearing, and peeling skin on their faces and hands.
Mr. Abramovich and the Ukrainian negotiators, who include Crimean Tatar lawmaker Rustem Umerov, have since improved and their lives aren’t in danger, the people said. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who has met with Mr. Abramovich, wasn’t affected, they said. Mr. Zelensky’s spokesman said he had no information about any suspected poisoning.
Western experts who looked into the incident said it was hard to determine whether the symptoms were caused by a chemical or biological agent or by some sort of electromagnetic-radiation attack, the people familiar with the matter said.
The Kremlin didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the suspected poisoning.
The investigation was organized by Christo Grozev, an investigator with the Bellingcat open-source collective who concluded that a Kremlin team poisoned Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent in 2020. Mr. Grozev said that he saw the images of the effects of the attack on Mr. Abramovich and Ukrainian negotiators, but that a timely sample collection couldn’t be arranged in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, through which they were traveling, because these people were in a hurry to travel to Istanbul.
By the time a German forensic team with the required know-how was able to perform an examination, too much time had passed for the suspected poison to be detected, he said. “It was not intended to kill, it was just a warning,” Mr. Grozev said.
In 2018, Britain blamed Russia’s intelligence services for a nerve-agent attack on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer who defected to the United Kingdom, and his daughter Yulia. Both survived, as did a British police officer hospitalized after contact with the poison. A British woman later died after accidentally coming into contact with the nerve agent.
The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the Skripal poisoning.
Mr. Abramovich, who has longstanding links to President Vladimir Putin, became involved in attempts to end the war in Ukraine shortly after Moscow launched the invasion on Feb. 24, people familiar with the matter said.
His efforts are sometimes in conjunction with and sometimes parallel to a separate, official, negotiating track between Ukrainian and Russian representatives, they said. The Kyiv meeting where the suspected poisoning took place involved Mr. Abramovich, who is one of Russia’s wealthiest men, and members of the official Ukrainian negotiating team.
Mr. Zelenskyy has asked President Biden not to impose sanctions on Mr. Abramovich, who owns a minority stake in the steel company Evraz PLC and has Portuguese citizenship, because he is involved in the negotiations, according to people familiar with the call. Mr. Abramovich, who also owns the Chelsea soccer club, has been sanctioned by the U.K. and the European Union.
Asked about Mr. Abramovich in an interview with independent Russian media organizations on Sunday, Mr. Zelenskyy said he wouldn’t comment on his discussions with Mr. Biden. He said Mr. Abramovich was initially a member of a subcommittee of the Russian negotiating team, and then tried to help with humanitarian matters, particularly the evacuation of Ukrainian civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol.
Mr. Abramovich was seen in Belarus in late February as initial, official talks began between Kyiv and Moscow and has acted as a back channel for talks with the Kremlin, personally meeting with Mr. Putin on Ukraine, people familiar with the matter say. His role in the talks varies regularly and he has tried to engage others, including former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, those people said.
A new round of negotiations is set for Tuesday in Turkey, as negotiators discuss both a potential political settlement to the war and immediate humanitarian issues, such as the evacuation of civilians from cities under bombardment and prisoner exchanges.
Mr. Zelenskyy has indicated that Ukraine is open to compromise, saying it would be willing to maintain a neutral status if it receives binding security guarantees from both the West and Moscow. He has ruled out Moscow’s demand to discuss demilitarization of the country. Any agreement with Russia would have to be endorsed by a popular referendum held after all Russian forces withdraw to the positions they held before Feb. 24, he told Russian media on Sunday.
While the Kremlin says it is interested in pursuing a negotiated solution, presenters on popular talk shows on Russian state TV have said in recent days that any agreement with Mr. Zelenskyy would be a humiliation for Russia and said that Ukraine should be absorbed into the Russian state.
