Yes, Yegor Gaidar was poisoned in Maynooth

Four months after the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, a group of suspects has been assembled, evidence has been compiled and fingers have been pointed. We are, however, as far away from any real resolution of this case, as we were when it happened. Blame falls at the doors of two people, Russian Premier Vladimir Putin and exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky. The debate surrounding the case is due to see an increased amount of media
attention in the coming months when a book, authored by Litvinenko’s wife, is due to come into circulation. The death of Alexander Litvinenko can not be treated as a case in isolation, there have been several similar deaths in recent years, most
notably that of outspoken journalist, Anna Politkovskaya. One poisoning does not fall into the category of political assassinations as neatly as that of Litvinenko or Politkovskaya. Yegor Gaidar’s illness at NUI Maynooth has now been verified (by Gaidar and not his doctors) as a case of
intentional poisoning. Gaidar penned an op-ed piece tellingly entitled ‘How I was poisoned and why Russia’s political
enemies were surely behind it’. Gaidar
believes that his poison lay in an odd
tasting cup of tea which he drank in the University canteen on the old campus. The poison given to Litvinenko, though
radioactive in nature, was also believed to have been administered via a cup of tea. Culinary similarities aside, the poisoning of these two prominent Russian figures within two days of each other was,
naturally, treated with a great deal of suspicion.
Allegations as to who was responsible for Mr.Gaidar’s poisoning were slow in
coming, due to the incomprehensibility of an attack on a man now as politically
inconsequential as Mr.Gaidar. Anatoly
Chubais, a Gaidar associate, himself the target of an assassination attempt in 2005, is quoted as saying that an “unconstitutional and forceful change of power in Russia” is what links the deaths and attempt on the life of Mr.Litvineko, Anna Politskovaya and Yegor Gaidar. In this scenario, it would be Vladimir Putin and his colleagues in the FSB (Russian
intelligence service) that committed or at least sanctioned the crimes. One factor, and the only one of note, that links these three characters is their committal to print their deep mistrust of President Vladimir Putin. Litvinenko authored ‘Blowing up Russia’, which alleged that Putin and
others planned a series of bombings in Moscow to legitimise a re-entry in
Chechnya, Politkovskaya wrote a scathing attack on the president in her book ‘Putin’s Russia’ and Gaidar has been highly critical of Putin’s rule, commenting that
‘Today’s Kremlin thinks that democracy
was being built too quickly in Russia.
TheGovernment does not say that it is










against democracy, only that it is untimely and needs to be delayed-a logic that
manifests itself in most official decisions’.
Litvinenko’s account of the apartment bombings is important not only because it implicates Putin in state sponsored terror, but also because it implicates Putin and the FSB in a coup d’etat, removing Boris Yeltsin and installing Putin. All three were worrisome over the course down which Putin was leading Russia; all three were attempting to counter the myth of Putin as a stern yet fair leader. . To this list of
mysterious deaths we must add a man by the name of Yuri Schekochikhin, a
journalist at Novaya gazetta, the same magazine that Anna Politkovskaya worked for. He also authored ‘Slaves of KGB: 20th Century, The religion of betrayal’. Tests showed that he was poisoned with
Thallium, the same poison first believed to have been used on Litvinenko.

It was not only the close proximity to the poisoning of Litvinenko that set alarm bells ringing in the case of Gaidar, but also shared cast members. The man named by Scotland Yard as the chief suspect in the Litvinenko murder, Andrei Lugovoi, was at one time the bodyguard of Yegor Gaidar and Boris Berizovsky. Lugovoi was also a former agent of the KGB, now FSB, the
service at which Vladimir Putin sat at the helm for many years. A trail of polonium 210 followed Lugovoi on planes around Europe, including his meeting point with Alexander Litvinenko on the day he was taken ill. Lugovoi was reported to have been in London to watch CSKA Moscow play Arsenal in the champion’s league. This story has become less credible with the revelation that Lugovoi and his
travelling companion Dmitry Kovtun held no tickets for the game upon their arrival in London. Boris Berezovsky broke his
silence recently and spoke candidly of his impression of Andrei Lugovoi and the
Litvinenko poisoning. While in hospital
Litvinenko allegedly confided to Mr.Berezovsky that he thought that
Lugovoi was the one who poisoned him, furthermore, he added that there was no such thing as a ‘former’ KGB agent and that Lugovoi was still on the same payroll as he was during his intelligence career, though now it was unofficial. Berezovksy claims that Litvinenko was in the process of compiling very damaging evidence
implicating unnamed figures in criminal dealings. In perhaps the most open
accusation to date, Berizovsky declared that ‘they (The Russian Prosecutor
general’s office) know who actually
contracted and carried out this crime’.
It would be disingenuous to place Gaidar in the same category as Litvinenko or Politkovskaya, Litvinenko having refused to murder oligarch Boris Berezovsky and Politkovskaya having sided with Chechnya in their conflict with Russia. Motives for Putin to have the two murdered are
numerous, an explanation for an attempt on Gaidar’s life is more difficult to
envisage. One explanation for this spate of plots is that a power struggle is ensuing in the Kremlin. Putin has not named his
preferred successor, thus different factions are vying for power as the 2008 elections approach.

The involvement of the FSB or any other arm of the Russian Government in the
attempt on the life of Yegor Gaidar is very much open to debate, Gaidar himself
dismissing the claims, whereas close
associates of his are more cautious to
absolve guilt. The initial reaction of the
Russian embassy in Dublin to Mr.Gaidar’s illness was to say that he was diagnosed as suffering from gastroenteritis, when no such diagnosis was made. Such an account is at odds with the report from James
Connolly memorial hospital and Gaidar’s personal physicians. Mr.Gaidar’s doctors in Russia could not use the term ‘Poisoned’ due to the fact that they could not determine the cause of his illness, they could, however, confirm that the illness was not a natural occurrence. Gaidar checked himself out of Connolly hospital a day after he was committed, against the advice of doctors. Gaidar’s quick flight would indicate that he was not so much returning to the safety of home as
escaping from possible danger. One
possible reason for the lack of any firm
diagnosis is the fact that traces of some poisons are not apparent 48 hours after their administration.
What makes the cases of Litvinenko and Gaidar so extraordinary is the fact that they are both prominent critics of the Putin administration, they were both poisoned within two days of each other and both poisonings occurred outside of Russian territory. The likelihood that two high
profile poisonings would happen in such close proximity to other and not be
somehow related is slim. One must wonder if the Gardai have acted on the new
information that Yegor Gaidar was indeed poisoned and whether they have set about trying to ascertain who prepared his tea that morning. This tale of intrigue has not yet seen its end and it is quite possible that it is in Maynooth that some vital
evidence may be found.