‘They are among us’: Russia’s terrifyingly effective poisoning operation

by IMSLI

24 comments
  1. They probably are paid from the same place. Find 10 and see who paid them and from where.

  2. Just allow our secret services to eliminate this scumbags should make a lot of things a lot easier

  3. I’m just waiting for the counter-article about how all Russians actually love the war and wholeheartedly support Putin like a national blob.

  4. It’s probably long past time to block all Russian entry into any country found in the western world.

  5. It always amaze me how they go for the most villainesque approach instead of just shooting the guys or running them over with a car

  6. You know, it’s curious that they only seem to target Russians.

  7. Natalia Arno was fully inside the hotel room before she noticed the smell. It was sickly sweet, like a cheap perfume at the drug store, only more nauseating.
    It was May 2 2023, and Arno had arrived in Prague the night before, on part of a European tour. The Russian activist and non-profit director had been on the road, meeting with donors and organisers looking for ways to bolster democracy back in Russia. On the previous leg of her trip, Arno had felt a bit tired, like she was coming down with something. But now, after a day of meetings and a business dinner, she was full of her usual energy. She was just going back to her room to change into jeans, before meeting up for drinks with colleagues.
    Arno, a petite woman with warm eyes and an open face framed by a straight dark bob, was staying at the Hotel Garden Court, a tastefully renovated building nestled among the baroque architecture and cobbled streets that border the city’s old town. As she’d come down the long white hallway to her room, she realised the door was ajar. Arno tensed. She slowly opened the door, bracing for a potential intruder, but no one was there. She started searching for listening devices — under the table, near the bed, in her suitcase, with her clothes — but found nothing.
    The smell was overpowering, especially near the bed. Some awful floral scent worn by the maid, she reasoned. But had housekeeping even been? The wastebasket had been emptied but the bed looked unmade. Arno put the thought aside and went to freshen up, brushing her teeth before heading out again for drinks.

    On her way, she stopped at the reception desk to tell the young man there what had happened. He seemed alarmed, vowing that the hotel would punish the maid responsible. “What was missing from the room?” he asked.
    “I’m not worried about robbery,” the usually cool-headed Arno shot back. “I’m worried about security.”
    He promised to look into the matter and Arno stepped into the brisk night to a nearby café where her colleagues, Greg and Alexandra, were waiting. A few hours later, she was saying goodnight to Greg and agreeing to meet the next day. “I know a good sushi place around here,” he told her. She returned to her room, responded to a few emails, called her husband in Washington, DC and watched some YouTube videos before turning off the light.
    Three hours later, Arno woke up with an excruciating pain inside her mouth — a burning sensation so unbearable she could barely open it. Arno is no stranger to pain. When she was 13, she dropped a pot of boiling water, burning herself so badly she had to spend a month in a hospital where there were no painkillers. She gave birth to her son without pain relief and treats most illnesses with a cup of hot tea and honey. But this agony surpassed any she had ever experienced.
    She realised she was in no position to attend that day’s meetings. Instead, she messaged Greg to say she was in too much pain to continue with the trip. Then she booked the next flight back to DC and packed her suitcase. By the time she had checked in at the airport, she could no longer stand straight. Her vision was blurred; she wobbled. In her mouth, she tasted stone.
    On the plane, Arno began hallucinating. Trying to get to her connecting flight in Geneva, she felt like she was going to pass out, barely making it through security. For the next nine and a half hours, every minute brought a new kind of pain. She would feel numbness in one hand, then the other, then in both legs. At one point, she began slowly going numb from her neck all the way down her spine, like frost creeping down a windowpane. The pain coursed through her body. Her armpits. Her ears. Her chest. Her eyes. Her stomach. And yet the terrible pain in her mouth had all but disappeared.
    By the time Arno landed at Dulles airport, she was texting Greg and another colleague about her condition. A colleague in Tbilisi was alarmed, noting that two Russian opposition journalists had recently experienced horrifying sicknesses and were believed by some to be the victims of poisonings. They wondered, could Arno be the latest target?

  8. They are taking a break from poisoning. That guy who was offed in Spain a few days ago was shot and run over by a car. Seems Russians took their time with this one and made it slow and personal, but not too slow to get away.

  9. Didn’t know my several hundreds of hours of playing Amogus would eventually help me sus out Russian spies ඞ

  10. Хело еверионе, плеазе дринк зис водка витз ме

  11. This article is seriously important, but my humor is broken and my life ruined

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