German police investigate after Vladimir Kara-Murza’s mother ends up in hospital with unknown ailments
Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza said his mother was in hospital in Berlin on Tuesday, while German police said they were investigating a case of attempted homicide.
Kara-Murza said suspicions that his mother, a German-Russian citizen, had been poisoned had not been confirmed.
Police said toxicology test results are not expected until Wednesday.
“My mother is in a hospital in Berlin, but luckily the suspicion of poisoning or a heart attack has not been confirmed,” Kara-Murza posted on social media. “The doctors are continuing the investigation.”
Complained of symptoms of poisoning
According to police, the woman, whose name she did not give, was transferred to the isolation ward at the Charité hospital. She had gone to the hospital in the afternoon and complained of symptoms of poisoning.
“We are currently checking whether there is evidence of political motivation,” said police spokeswoman Jane Berndt. She added that the victim’s apartment in the western district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf was being searched for clues.
Kara-Murza, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his all-out invasion of Ukraine, was one of more than 20 prisoners that Russia, Belarus and the West exchanged prisoners in August in the largest exchange of prisoners since the Cold War.
Among those he was exchanged for was Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov, convicted of murder in 2019 in a Berlin park belonging to a Georgian citizen who had been part of the Chechen independence movement.
Last year, Russian investigative journalist Elena Kostyutschenko fell ill on a train to Berlin after what she believed was a poison attack. The police launched an investigation into an attempted murder.
