RUSSIA: Former Russian prime minister Yegor Gaidar claims he still has health problems after he fell mysteriously ill in Ireland late last month.
Mr Gaidar has now left a Moscow clinic where he was being tested for suspected poisoning after he became sick while attending an academic conference at NUI Maynooth.
Despite allegations by some of his friends and family that this was as a result of poisoning, no firm evidence has yet emerged.
Contacted by The Irish Times last night, Mr Gaidar said he was now feeling "much better" but insisted he not yet fully recovered. "There are still health problems inherited from the events in Ireland," he said.
Pressed on whether these problems were caused by poisoning, he referred the query to his doctors. So far, his doctors have not commented publicly and Dr Gaidar referred all other requests for information to his spokesman.
Both Dr Gaidar's daughter and his spokesman claimed last week that his doctors would soon release test results indicating that he had most likely been poisoned, as no other cause for his illness had been discovered.
After his return to Moscow, his friend and political ally Anatoly Chubais claimed he had been on the brink of death for three hours and had been poisoned, along with Alexander Litvinenko, in a plot to discredit Russia abroad.
The separate Scotland Yard investigation into the death of Litvinenko also appeared to be running into difficulties last night.
Russia's prosecutor general, Yuri Chaika, said suspects in the case would not face extradition to Britain and that the British investigating officers currently in Russia would not be allowed to interview a prisoner who claimed he had vital information for them.
Among the most sensational allegations that has emerged since Litvinenko, a former KGB colonel, was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 in London last month, was the suggestion from another former KGB member, Mikhail Trepashkin, that he had previously been asked to join a special death squad.
From his prison, Trepashkin wrote a letter claiming that four years ago he was approached to join a secret special unit targeting the London-based Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky - a friend and benefactor of Litvinenko.
However, the Russian authorities have ruled out any possibility that Trepashkin, who is serving a four-year term for treason, could meet the visiting police.
British investigators said last night that they had found minute traces of polnium-210 at Arsenal football stadium.