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Italian authorities have reportedly not yet ruled out poisoning in the case of a self-exiled top Kremlin official who suddenly fell ill over the weekend and had to be hospitalized.
Anatoly Chubais’ sudden departure from Russia in March—at the onset of Vladimir Putin’s so-called “special military operation” against Ukraine—was widely seen as a sign of opposition to the war by the influential Kremlin insider. He never publicly explained his reasons for leaving, but Bloomberg cited two anonymous sources at the time who said he had come out against the war.
After he made headlines by abruptly resigning as a high-ranking adviser to Putin and apparently fleeing to Europe, he had largely vanished from public view until reports broke last weekend that he’d been hospitalized with seemingly debilitating symptoms.