Roman Abramovich was not poisoned but hurt when a tear gas canister exploded beside him as he left peace talks, Turkish media have claimed.
The Chelsea owner was flown to the Turkish capital Ankara to be treated in secret at a public hospital after the incident on March 3 in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the reports said. It was claimed earlier this week Abramovich and two Ukrainian delegates had lost their sight for several hours after the incident in the suspected poisoning attack, initially blamed on an infected chocolate bar.
Investigative journalist Christo Grozev subsequently linked it to a WW1 chemical agent and said a team of experts had agreed Chloropicrin or a low dosage of Novichok had been used in the "plot." Russia has rubbished the reports and described them as part of an “information war” and Ukraine negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak played them down on Wednesday as speculative “conspiracy theories.”
