DUBLIN, Ireland, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- The family of a former Russian prime minister has claimed his illness in Ireland was the result of "an unnatural poisoning."
Yegor Gaidar, who was linked to a former spy, Alexander Litvinenko, who died recently of a suspected poisoning, began vomiting blood at a Dublin conference last Friday, The Times of London reported Friday.
"This was an unnatural poisoning," said an aide to the family. "Doctors do not see natural causes of poisoning involving any substance known to them."
Gaidar's daughter, Maria, described her father's illness as the result of "a poison unknown to civilian medicine." The Irish Times reports after being released from an Irish hospital, Gaidar returned home and has since been hospitalized in Moscow.
Friends of the former prime minister have said the attack was an attempt to discredit the Russian government, which family members of Litvinenko had blamed for the former spy's death.
Scotland Yard as well as Irelands Gardai were investigating Friday whether there were any links between the two incidents.
