Russia was likely behind poisoning of former Ukrainian President Yushchenko in 2004 – US intelligence

The United States intelligence has declassified a document on the assassinations abroad of political opponents of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Source: Bloomberg with reference to US intelligence document

Quote: "... Political and opposition leaders in key former Soviet republics that are deemed a threat. 

A key example is former President of Ukraine Viktor Yuschenko, who suffered a near-fatal poisoning in 2004.

His supporters concluded that Russian intelligence introduced the chemical dioxin into his food when he was a presidential candidate advocating Ukraine's integration with the West."

Details: The report also mentions the blowing up of the car belonging to a former leader of Ichkeria, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Other Kremlin-related murders include the poisoning of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 and businessman Alexander Perepelichny, who died suddenly while jogging near his mansion in England in 2012.

Another target of the Kremlin may be separatists in Ukraine’s east disloyal to Moscow, according to the declassified report. The 2015 murder of Oleksandr Biednov, who was the defence minister of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic [a non-recognised quasi-state formation in Luhansk Oblast – ed.] is cited as an example.

The US intelligence said it was highly confident in this report.

It was also reported that Putin had probably given Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic who is extremely loyal to Putin, the freedom to kill Chechens abroad. Most of the killings attributed to Kadyrov's people have been carried out by shooting, while those that intelligence estimates were carried out by Russian secret services include a wide range of methods, including poisoning.

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