American Women Poisoned in Russia

(Moscow, Russia) Two Soviet-born American women, who have often visited Russia, were poisoned in Moscow. They were admitted to the hospital on February 24th and tests later confirmed the poisoning.

CNN:

Two American women have been released from a Moscow clinic after they were hospitalized with possible thallium poisoning, a hospital official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Marina Kovalevsky, 42, and her daughter Yana, 26, were well enough to walk out of Sklifosovsky Clinic Wednesday and were expected to leave the country shortly.

The U.S. Embassy confirmed earlier on Wednesday that the women had possibly been poisoned from thallium, a radioactive element.

Moscow's top public health doctor, Nikolai Filatov, said thallium poisoning had been confirmed, according to the RIA-Novosti news agency.

Russian investigators have been checking all the places that the Kovalevskys (aka Kovalenskayas) ate including their central Moscow hotel and various restaurants. According to a statement from the Sklifosovsky Institute, the dosage of thallium was not life-threatening.

Although the media seem reluctant to confirm the poisoning, I'll believe the Russian public health doctor. It's likely that he has some experience with murder by poison, ostensibly a popular form of political expression in Russia. It remains to be determined why someone would want to kill, or sicken, two female tourists.

Companion post at The Jawa Report.