Murdered Putin critic ‘survived earlier poisoning’
A MURDERED Russian dissident is believed to have survived an earlier poisoning attempt after drinking champagne with two mystery men from Moscow.
Detectives are said to be reexamining the poisoning as part of an inquiry into the strangling of Nikolai Glushkov, 68, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Glushkov’s murder at his home in London came a week after Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury in March.
Last night it emerged that Glushkov fell ill in a Bristol hotel room after meeting the two Russians in November 2013.
He told friends he had first met the pair at Schiphol airport in Holland – a location he had picked because of its extensive CCTV coverage. He came across them again when he was staying at the Grand Hotel in Bristol.
Keith Carr, a paramedic in the city, told The Guardian that Glushkov had claimed the Russians probably poisoned him.
The dissident said the men had bought a bottle of champagne from the hotel bar and he had agreed to drink it with them despite not knowing them well. He was found the next morning collapsed on the floor of his hotel room, where he was lucid but ‘a bit tottery’.
Mr Carr said: ‘I found Nikolai on the floor of his hotel room.. He was able to stand up with help. He looked a bit tottery. We sat him on the bed. Nikolai told me “I’ve been given something. I don’t know what it is.”
‘I asked him what had happened. He told me that he and the two Russians had been drinking champagne. The next thing he remembered was waking up on the carpet the next morning. He had carpet burns on his face and on his chest.’
Glushkov is said to have explained he was a probable target because of his lifelong friendship with Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, who was found hanged in his Surrey home in 2013. But the two police officers in the room at the time were said to have been sceptical.
Mr Carr added: ‘At the time I don’t think anybody gave any credibility to what he was saying.’
He said that tests showed Glushkov had a very ‘irregular and fast’ cardiac rhythm. He was taken to hospital before being transferred to a private clinic near London.
Avon and Somerset Police confirmed to The Guardian they attended a ‘suspicious incident’ at the hotel but no charges were brought. The newspaper said Glushkov is thought to have not co-operated with the authorities.
The Metropolitan Police said last night it would not comment on its lines of investigation into the Glushkov murder. It is understood officers have not identified any clear suspects.
The death of former Aeroflot director Glushkov sparked fears he too could be the victim of Kremlin-sponsored assassins.