AP Features, July 22nd, 2007
Two American women poisoned by thallium during a trip to Russia this year say they have no idea why they were targeted.
"Either someone wanted us dead or somebody messed up," Yana Kovalevsky told the Los Angeles Times.
"We have no political ties, we have no property in Russia and I don't have a boyfriend with mob ties," she told the newspaper.
Kovalesvsky, 27, and her mother, Dr. Marina Kovalevsky, 50, became ill in February and were hospitalized in Moscow before returning home to Los Angeles. They were discharged from an L.A. hospital in March after their thallium levels decreased with treatment.
Their ordeal made worldwide headlines in part because it was reported just three months after Alexander Litvinenko _ a Kremlin critic with asylum in Britain _ died Nov. 23 after ingesting a rare radioactive isotope. Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, blamed Putin from his deathbed.
The women were born in the former Soviet Union and immigrated to the United States in 1989. Marina Kovalevsky has a medical practice in Los Angeles. Her daughter is a social worker.
It remains unknown how they came to ingest the tiny, but potentially lethal amounts, of the heavy metal. Among the other unanswered questions is who targeted them and why.
They and their doctors believe the poisoning was intentional.
In the past, thallium had been used in rat poison, until its toxicity to humans prompted most countries to ban it. One gram is enough to kill a person and lesser amounts can damage the heart, brain, spinal cord and lungs.
