It has come to light that a Russian opposition politician who spoke out against the conflict in Ukraine was poisoned with a highly toxic substance.
An outspoken Kremlin critic, Elvira Vikhareva, 32, revealed tests showing she had potassium dichromate in her blood to Russia’s Sota news channel.
Miss Vikhareva claimed that she started experiencing symptoms of being ill in November of last year, including hair loss, muscle spasms, and severe stomach pains that persisted until February 2023.
It comes after a number of Moscow’s detractors have been poisoned in recent years, most notably Alexei Navalny, the de facto opposition leader of Russia, who nearly died in August 2020 after FSB agents smeared novichock on his pants.
She told TV Rain she had not appealed to police for help as it was clear anyone in Russia who took an ‘anti-war position’ quickly became ‘enemy number one’.
Miss Vikhareva said: ‘When the test results came back the only phrase that was heard was: “How did you survive?”
‘I don’t have any assumptions but if a person has an anti-war position and is in Russia, and can express their thoughts clearly about what is going on in Russia and Ukraine, then they are enemy number one.’
She said she didn’t appeal to police for help as that would be like going to a ‘bloody executioner’.
‘I survived and I want my survival to aggrieve those who were responsible,’ she added.
Potassium dichromate, a compound used in wood treatment and photography, can damage organs and cause cancer, infertility and breathing difficulties. It is harmful when in contact with the skin.
Miss Vikhareva hosts regular political shows on YouTube, which can still be accessed in Russia, but stopped showing her face on camera because the poisoning had taken its ‘toll on her looks’.
She said on social media her body began to ‘give up’ and she had to have constant visits from doctors.
But she has since recovered despite the poisoning leaving her with shaking hands, eyelashes that fall out and nails that ‘look like they’ve been run over by a train’.
Miss Vikhareva – who worked on election campaigns for Dmitry Gudkov, an exiled opposition politician – ran for the Duma in 2021 but lost to a pro-Kremlin candidate amid widespread accusations of vote rigging.
The Kremlin has a history of accusations against it for poisoning its opponents and exiled dissidents.
Bellingcat, a group of investigative journalists, uncovered evidence which alleged Russian agents had poisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Mr Navalny was rushed to a German hospital on an aeroplane after he fell ill on a domestic Russian flight in August 2020.
He recovered and returned to Russia where he was sentenced and convicted on fraud on contempt of court charges which he described as ‘politically motivated’.
Former KGB agent turned opposition activist Alexander Litvinenko died after he was poisoned with polonium-210 in London in 2006.
In 2021, the European Court of Human Rights found the Kremlin responsible for Mr Litvinenko’s death.
A UK public inquiry also found he was killed in an operation by Russia’s Federal Security Service which was ‘probably’ approved by Putin.
The Kremlin has always denied any involvement in Mr Litvinenko’s death.