Putin's former climate czar hospitalized in Europe

Anatoly Chubais, who resigned as a top Kremlin adviser shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, was hospitalized in a Western European country on Sunday in critical condition with symptoms of a rare neurological disorder. Mr. Chubais had suddenly become numb in his hands and legs, his wife, Avodtya Smirnova, told Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak.

Mr. Chubais, 67, told Ms Sobchak himself that he had been diagnosed with the rare Guillain-Barré syndrome, in which the body's immune system attacks his nerves.

According to Mrs. Sobchak's news channel, specialists in "chemical protective suits", examined the room in which he suddenly fell ill.

Mr. Chubais was an important part of Russian politics and an ally of President Vladimir V. Putin since the 1990s. He oversaw privatization during Russia's transition to a market economy, became the managing director of the monopoly of the Russian state electricity company and took the reins of Rosnano, a state technology company. . He quit that post - and Russia entirely - in March without giving a reason, although it is widely believed that this stemmed from his opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. He is one of the most senior Russian officials to resign from Putin's government since February.

Mr. Chubais' current location has not been disclosed.

It is unclear what happened to Mr. Chubais, although news of his sudden illness has drew attention to a series of episodes in which Kremlin opponents were poisoned.

Opposition politician Aleksei A. Navalny was poisoned in 2020 with the chemical agent Novichok. In 2015, opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza also suffered from symptoms consistent with poisoning.

Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former F.S.B. agent, l he successor agency to the K.G.B. , died of radioactive polonium-210 poisoning in London in 2006.