Gaidar doctors 'unable to diagnose illness'

Doctors have failed to diagnose former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar’s mysterious illness, saying they suspected poisoning, but were unable to detect the toxic substance that could be to blame, an aide said today.

Gaidar, a 50-year-old economist who served briefly as prime minister in the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin and is a leader of a Russian liberal opposition party, began vomiting and fainted during a conference in Ireland on November 24, and was rushed into intensive care at a hospital.

Spokesman Valery Natarov said doctors had concluded his condition “did not correspond to any disease known to medicine and a toxic factor was possible”.

Natarov said Gaidar was taken to a Moscow hospital 60 hours after falling ill, which made it impossible to trace any possible toxic substance, which usually stays in the system for 48 hours.

Gaidar was discharged yesterday and was feeling “quite well”, but would remain under doctors’ supervision, Natarov said.

Gaidar fell ill a day after ex-KGB officer and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko died in London after being poisoned with radioactive element polonium-210.