Putin’s top official rushed to hospital in ‘suspected poisoning’ months after fleeing Russia in protest over Ukraine war

ONE of Vladimir Putin's official has been rushed to hospital in a "suspected poisoning" months after fleeing Russia in protest over the war in Ukraine.

Anatoly Chubais is in intensive care after complaining about numbness in his arms and legs.

Specialists in hazmat suits were seen streaming into Chubais' room after he was taken ill in an unspecified country in Europe.

Reports of his sudden illness were first published by journalist and former Russian presidential candidate, Ksenia Sobchak. 

Chubais, 67, was initially diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome - a rare and life threatening disease that affects the nerves - but investigators are keeping an open mind following repeated cases where Putin's enemies were poisoned to death.

Sobchak said: “In this case, the diagnosis may change.”

She said that “the room where Chubais was when he felt unwell was examined by specialists in chemical protection suits".

Cops also "questioned all the witnesses", she added.

The casualty's wife Avdotya Smirnova, 56, a film director, says his condition was “unstable”, said Sobchak. 

“It became bad, suddenly the arms and legs became numb," she said.

Chubais himself was quoted as saying: “I have been hospitalised in one of the European clinics with a diagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome. A condition of moderate severity, stable."

At least five Russian oligarch close to Putin have been murdered as the president purged his inner circle of former wealthy allies.

Since the start of the year, four gas industry bosses linked to the tyrant and a top medical executive have died in mysterious circumstances.

Some believe they were murdered amid alleged similarities in their deaths.

On February 25 - the day after Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine - the body of Alexander Tyulakov, a senior Gazprom financial and security official at the deputy general director level, was found by his lover.

The 61-year-old's neck was in a noose in his £500,000 home. 

Just three weeks prior - in the same elite gated housing development in the Leningrad region - Leonid Shulman, head of transport at Gazprom Invest, was found dead.

The 60-year-old was discovered with multiple stab wounds in a pool of blood on his bathroom floor.

Meanwhile, wealthy Vladislav Avayev, 51, an ex-vice-president of Gazprombank and former Kremlin official, was found shot dead in his elite Moscow penthouse.

And days later, Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found hanged in Spain.

Protosenya was a former deputy chairman of Novotek, a company closely linked to the Kremlin.

Chubais quit as Putin’s special envoy to international organisations in March - and left Russia to live in exile in protest about the war, say media reports. 

He is seen as the most senior Russian official to resign for this reason.

He is a former Kremlin deputy prime minister who led the privatisation of the Russian economy after the fall of communism in the government of Boris Yeltsin.

He remained a key figure under Putin and from 1998 to his exile this year, he headed Russia’s state-owned electrical power monopoly RAO UES and its nanotechnology corporation RUSNANO.

In early June he was photographed in a Cyprus supermarket, and earlier there were reports he had been in Israel and Turkey. 

Guillain-Barré syndrome is a rare and serious condition which can be life threatening affecting the nerves in the feet, hands and limbs.

It causes numbness, weakness and pain.