A former Russian deputy prime minister who resigned from Putin’s government and fled the country over the invasion of Ukraine has been pictured in Israel, where he “took citizenship” after a poisoning scare.
Anatoly Chubais, 67, once also the Kremlin chief of staff, is the highest-ranking official to leave Putin and was first photographed in Tel-Aviv.
He was at the center of a poisoning scare over the summer after fleeing Russia, which left him hospitalized in Sardinia.
Chubais fell ill with severe numbness in his arms and legs after abandoning Putin and going abroad, resigning as the Russian leader’s envoy to international organizations in March.
Anatoly Chubais, 67, once also the Kremlin chief of staff, was first photographed in Tel-Aviv.
Chubais, a former Russian deputy prime minister, was at the center of a poisoning scare over the summer after fleeing Russia over the Ukraine war, which left him hospitalized in Sardinia.
Chubais is the highest-ranking official to have abandoned Putin. In the photo: Chubais, left, with Vladimir Putin, right
His condition was eventually formally diagnosed as the rare neurological disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome, however there were claims that Italian secret services continued to investigate the case amid alleged poisoning attacks by Putin’s agents against multiple ‘enemies’. ‘.
Independent Russian media outlet ‘We Can Explain’ has reported that both Chubais and his wife, 53-year-old filmmaker Avdotya Smirnova, have been issued Israeli passports.
This entitles them to travel and live in Europe without visas, according to the report.
Chubais left Putin and went abroad, resigning as the Russian leader’s envoy to international organizations in March.
Both Chubais and his filmmaker wife Avdotya Smirnova, 53, pictured here, were issued Israeli passports, according to reports.
Since leaving Russia, Chubais has been seen in Italy, Turkey and Cyprus. The couple also made a previous trip to Israel in the spring.
A post by the anti-Putin General SVR Telegram channel claimed that Chubais was blacklisted in Putin’s draft, but provided no evidence for the accusation.
The list was supposedly people hostile to Nikolai Patrushev, a close crony of the president who is secretary of the Russian security council.
Chubais was the key figure in the privatization of the Russian economy after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Chubais was the key figure in the privatization of the Russian economy after the fall of the Soviet Union. In the picture: Chubais, on the left, with Boris Yelstin, on the right, who was the first president of the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1999.
Chubais’s condition was eventually diagnosed as the rare neurological disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome, however there were claims that Italian secret services continued to investigate the case amid alleged poisoning attacks by Putin’s agents against multiples.” enemies”.
Another Russian known to have obtained an Israeli passport since the start of the war is Putin’s ‘goddaughter’ Ksenia Sobchak, 41, pictured.
For 12 years, until 2020, he headed the Russian Nanotechnology Corporation (RUSNANO).
Chubais’s Jewish roots came through his mother Raisa Sagal, from Lithuania.
Meanwhile, another Russian known to have obtained an Israeli passport since the start of the war is Putin’s ‘goddaughter’ Ksenia Sobchak, 41, a prominent television personality and former presidential candidate.
He used the passport to flee through Belarus to the EU state of Lithuania, but then returned after Putin assured him that he had not ordered his arrest.
Ms Sobchak has known Putin since she was a child when her father, then the mayor of St. Petersburg, appointed former KGB spy Putin as his deputy.
She first reported in August that Chubais suddenly became ill with acute numbness in her arms and legs.