Pussy Riot activist discharged from hospital believes Russian secret service tested ‘new poison cocktail’ on him
Pyotr Verzilov fell ill two weeks ago in Moscow and was flown to Germany for urgent treatment
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An activist with Russian protest punk band Pussy Riot said he was “convinced” he was poisoned by Russia’s secret service, possibly for looking into the killing of three Russian reporters in Africa.
Pyotr Verzilov, who was discharged from hospital Wednesday and has both Canadian and Russian citizenship, told German daily Bild he believed it was likely Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency that attacked him.
“The poisoning was so professional that I can’t draw any other conclusion,” Verzilov, 30, was quoted as saying.
“It is possible they tried out a new poison cocktail on me because my poisoning took a different course than others: it didn’t take several days before I noticed something but rather was acute right away.”
Verzilov was admitted to a clinic in Moscow this month with symptoms including vision loss and disorientation.
He was later flown to Germany and admitted to Berlin’s Charite hospital. Doctors there said Verzilov might have been poisoned by a toxin that disrupts the nervous system.
In a statement Wednesday, the hospital said he had been discharged as his health had “considerably improved”, adding that “absorption” of a poison was the “most plausible explanation” for his symptoms.
But it was still not clear exactly what had caused his illness.
“The consumption or absorption of an exogenous substance still seems to be the most plausible explanation for the cause of this syndrome,” said Professor Kai-Uwe Eckardt, one of the team that treated him.
Toxicology studies on the patient had given no clear indication on what had been used on Verzilov, said hospital director Karl Max Einhaeupl.
As well as Verzilov himself, several other members of Pussy Riot have also accused the Russian authorities of being behind the poisoning.
Verzilov and other Pussy Riot members served a 15-day jail sentence for invading the football pitch during the World Cup final in July to highlight Russian police abuses.
Pussy Riot has linked Verzilov’s suspected poisoning to his attempt to investigate the deaths of three Russian journalists in Central African Republic (CAR) in July – a theory he repeated to Bild.
The journalists were shot dead in CAR while probing a shadowy Russian mercenary group for a project founded by President Vladimir Putin’s foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
What is the Wagner Group? Reporters’ deaths put spotlight on Russia’s shadowy private army
Bild said Verzilov had been close to one of the reporters and was only kept from joining the three in Central African Republic because he had to serve jail time for the World Cup stunt.
“I wanted to and still want to investigate what happened with the three journalists,” he said.
“That could be the reason why the secret service wanted to poison me. I consider it to be a more likely motive than the World Cup demonstration.”
Verzilov told Bild that after his discharge, “I want to return to Russia.”
The activist’s comments come as British investigators accuse two suspects they say are members of Russia’s military intelligence for the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England, in March.
Russia has denied any involvement in the deaths.
