On 15 August 2023, Russian online investigative media The Insider reported on alleged poisoning attempts against independent Russian journalists and activists who left the country following the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to doctors quoted by The Insider, the symptoms experienced by Meduza correspondent Elena Kostyuchenko resembled those occurring following poisoning.
Kostyuchenko traveled to Ukraine immediately following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, initially reporting for the Moscow-based Novaya Gazeta. She published several reports from the country, including an article on alleged kidnappings and torture of Ukrainians by occupying Russian forces in Kherson. While in the southern city of Zaporizhia at the end of March 2022, Kostyuchenko planned on traveling to report from Mariupol, which at that time was still under Ukrainian control. However, she cancelled these plans after a contact presented her with an audio recording of what was said to be a conversation of troops under the orders of Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, who were allegedly preparing her murder following her planned arrival to the city.
Kostyuchenko eventually left Ukraine to live in Berlin, where she started working for exiled Russian media outlet Meduza, after Novaya Gazeta ceased coverage of the war in Ukraine due to new Russian censorship laws. While in Germany, she applied for a Ukrainian visa to be able to return to report from the country. She did not manage to secure an appointment at the Ukrainian consulate in Berlin, however she did receive one at the country’s consulate in Munich, where she traveled to by train on 17 October 2022. On her way back to Berlin, she reported having a headache and said she felt a sudden loss of force, due to which she barely managed to return to her apartment. On the following day, she felt a strong pain in her stomach and in her back as well as other symptoms, which she initially discounted as possible effects of Covid-19, which she had contracted three weeks earlier.
Ten days following her trip to Munich, Kostyuchenko consulted a doctor, with blood tests showing abnormalities in her liver. She was again tested at the Berlin Charite hospital, where Alexey Navalny had earlier been treated for poisoning, with police having simultaneously started an investigation into the case. However, the case was closed as finding evidence of poisoning was nearly impossible at such a late stage. The case was again reopened by police in July in order to conduct additional research.
In a separate incident, Russian journalist Irina Babloyan suffered similar symptoms while on a trip from Tbilisi, Georgia, where she lived at the time, to Yerevan, Armenia. Several months later, her blood samples were taken at the Charite clinic, however these were later “lost” by doctors, according to Babloyan. She later had a new blood test done, with police also interrogating the journalist about the incident.
According to doctors consulted by The Insider, the symptoms experienced by both journalists resembled those occurring following poisoning.