Anatoly Chubais, who resigned as a top Kremlin adviser shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, was hospitalized in a Western European country on Sunday in critical condition with symptoms of a neurological disorder rare. Mr Chubais had suddenly gone numb in his hands and legs, his wife, Avodtya Smirnova, told Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak.
Mr Chubais, 67, himself told Ms Sobchak that he had been diagnosed with the rare Guillain-Barré syndrome, in which the body’s immune system attacks his nerves.
According to Ms Sobchak’s news channel, specialists in “chemical protective suits” examined the room in which he suddenly fell ill.
Mr. Chubais had been an important part of Russian politics and an ally of President Vladimir V. Putin since the 1990s. He oversaw privatization during Russia’s transition to a market economy, became the managing director of the monopoly of Russian state electricity and took the reins of Rosnano, a state technology company.
More recently, he served as Mr. Putin’s international climate envoy. He quit that post – and Russia entirely – in March without giving a reason, although it is widely believed that this stemmed from his opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. He is one of the most senior Russian officials to have resigned from Putin’s government since February.
Mr. Chubais’ current location has not been disclosed.
It is unclear what happened to Mr Chubais, although news of his sudden illness drew attention to a series of episodes in which Kremlin opponents were poisoned.
Opposition politician Aleksei A. Navalny was poisoned in 2020 with the chemical agent Novichok. In 2015, opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza also suffered from symptoms consistent with poisoning.
Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former agent of the FSB, the successor agency to the KGB, died of radioactive polonium-210 poisoning in London in 2006.
nytimes Gt