A Russian politician known for her activism and opposition to the war in Ukraine believes she was poisoned with highly toxic heavy metals that caused her hair to fall out.
lvira Vikhareva has not been seen in public since she began feeling unwell in November, with symptoms including hair loss, muscle spasms and severe stomach pains.
Ms Vikhareva shared blood tests yesterday with Russia’s Sota news channel which showed high levels of potassium dichromate, a compound commonly used in industrial chemistry but which can be extremely harmful. It is usually fatal if ingested.
The suspected attack on Ms Vikhareva, who is largely unknown in Russia, could be a sign that the Kremlin is expanding its crackdown to target lower-profile activists, now that most well-known figures such as Alexei Navalny or Ilya Yashin are in prison or exile.
The 32-year-old activist, who hosts regular political shows on YouTube, stopped showing her face on the video streams about a month ago, speaking to her guests with the camera off.
Ms Vikhareva told Sota her worsening health “took its toll on her looks”.
The activist described first feeling unwell in November last year, when she experienced sharp stomach pains and heart palpitations.
She later began fainting and then her hair started falling out. Out of fear for her safety, Ms Vikhareva declined to give further details and asked for privacy.
“I’ve said everything I could given the fact I am in Moscow,” she said.
“Even though I’m engaged in opposition politics, I’m still a modest person who is not used to this kind of attention linked to my health.”
Reports of Ms Vikhareva’s ill health first surfaced in early March, when Leonid Gozman, a political scientist, voiced his fears in an interview with a Russian political YouTube channel.
“It looks very much like poisoning,” said Mr Gozman, who was forced into exile after a series of fines and periods in jail.
In 2020, now-jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent
Telegraph Media Group Limited [2023]