Gaidar Suffering From Undiagnosed Illness

Yegor Gaidar pictured in 2001 (ITAR-TASS) November 29, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Yegor Gaidar, a former acting prime minister of Russia, is being treated in a Moscow hospital after falling violently ill in Ireland -- one day after former Russian intelligence agent Aleksandr Litvinenko died of radiation poisoning in London.

His daughter, Maria Gaidar, told RFE/RL he began vomiting and fainted during a presentation at an economic conference in Dublin on November 24.

"He became sick during his speech," she said. "As he was leaving [the room], he fainted and remained unconscious for three hours. He was taken to the emergency room of a Dublin hospital. There was a real threat to his life."

Doctors say Gaidar's condition has stabilized. So far, however, they have been unable to determine the cause of his illness.

Maria Gaidar said her father received a clean bill of health during a physical exam just one month ago, and that medical officials have ruled out the possibility that Gaidar suffered a heart attack, stroke, or an onset of diabetes.

Gaidar's sudden illness, coming one day after the mysterious death of the former intelligence officer and longtime Kremlin critic Aleksandr Litvinenko, has sparked suggestions that Gaidar, too, was targeted for assassination.

Anatoly Chubais, a longtime associate of Gaidar and the head of Russia's national electricity monopoly, says he suspects a connection between Gaidar's illness, Litvinenko's poisoning, and the murder in October of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya.

He said people seeking what he called an "unconstitutional and forceful change of power in Russia" could have been behind the three incidents.

Aleksandr Khinshtein, a Duma deputy with pro-Kremlin Unified Russia, dismissed such accusations.

Khinshtein told journalists the recent reports about Litvinenko and Gaidar are part of a "complex plan, developed in the West, to discredit the Russian leadership and special services, and, specifically, President [Vladimir] Putin."

The leader of Russia's Union of Rightist Forces (SPS), Nikita Belykh, told RFE/RL he believed there was reason to suspect foul play but that he did not think there was a link between Litvinenko's death and Gaidar's illness.

"Of course, I can assume that if this was indeed a poisoning attempt, it might have political motives. But it is too early to talk about it and I would not link Litvinenko's death and Yegor Timurovich [Gaidar's] poisoning," Belykh said.

He added that he had never heard Gaidar mention any threats made against him, although he added that Gaidar had "enemies inside and outside Russia."

Maria Gaidar said her father had not suggested to her he had been poisoned, and that she was reluctant to "rush to conclusions."

"As far as I understand, he didn't have such a version. I didn't hear him say that," she told RFE/RL. "Such conclusions can be drawn from conversation with witnesses, with people who saw him in Dublin, so such allegations are indeed being made. But I didn't hear him make any such allegations."

Gaidar's press secretary, Valery Natarov, told Interfax that the possibility Gaidar had been poisoned cannot be ruled out, but added, "what is ruled out is poisoning with the use of radioactive isotopes."

Litvinenko, who died November 23 after a severe, three-week illness, was said by medical officials to have died from exposure to the radioactive isotope polonium-210.