Former high-ranking Russian official Anatoly Chubais is in a European hospital with symptoms of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological condition, according to prominent Russian journalist and TV personality Ksenia Sobchak.
Sobchak says she spoke to Chubais’ wife, who said that “her husband’s condition is unstable. Suddenly he became upset, and began to stop feeling his arms and legs.”
Sobchak is the daughter of the late Anatoly Sobchak, the former mayor of Saint Petersburg and political mentor to Russian President Vladimir Putin. She was also a Russian presidential candidate in 2018. In recent years, she has criticized Putin, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sobchak also directly quoted Chubais as saying about his condition: “I was hospitalized in a European clinic, where I was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome. The condition is moderate and stable.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Guillain-Barré syndrome is a rare disorder in which the immune system damages the body’s nerves.
Chubais did not respond to a request for comment from CNN and it is not clear where he is currently in Europe.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin had no details of what happened to Chubais but described the development as “sad news”.
Some basic information: Chubais resigned as the Kremlin’s special envoy for the environment in March. Reuters quoted two sources familiar with the matter as saying that he left the country because of the war in Ukraine. Chubais did not respond to CNN’s request for comment at the time. In March, the Kremlin confirmed that Chubais had left his job. TASS said Chubais had been working in the environmental field since December 4, 2020.
He rose to prominence as Finance Minister Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s. In the early days of Putin’s rise to power, Chubais was considered an opponent by the current president. Putin claimed in a series of interviews in 1999 that Chubais had canceled the Kremlin job he had initially been offered.
In recent years Chubais continued to advocate economic reform and was one of the few remaining liberals associated with the Russian government.
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