NEWS AND COMMENT: This is a bizarre story and slightly worrying if you are a follower of Russian news and a supporter of Russia. Conversely, if you dislike Russia because of Putin and his lapdogs, it is amusing although I feel sorry for this man. He is Alexander Subbotin a Lukoil board member. He submitted himself to an unusual remedy for a hangover; a form of alternative medicine which took place in the basement of a Shaman and his wife at their home. Why not just take an aspirin!? Answer: because he was murdered by Putin and the story is a lie (allegedly!)
We are told that the Shaman made an incision in his skin and dripped toad poison into it! The patient vomited and then apparently improved. He had regularly used their services. Suddenly he felt unwell. His heart ached. The quack decided not to call an ambulance and treated the man with Corvalol; a tranquilliser based on the herb valerian in combination with peppermint oil and hop extract.
The oligarch went to sleep in the basement, which is where he subsequently died. He was friendly with this alternative medicine quack as I have called her.
There have been several peculiar and mysterious deaths of oligarchs connected to Putin since his invasion of Ukraine. We have to speculate but perhaps this report is slightly misleading or greatly misleading. Perhaps he was poisoned deliberately on the orders of Putin?
Putin has a history of poisoning oligarchs who have fallen out with him. And journalists who write derogatory articles about him. Pure speculation, as I say. But it does seem very peculiar for what must have been an intelligent man to voluntarily submit to having toad poison, in effect, injected into his body. That just seems completely ridiculous to me and I suspect he was deliberately murdered but we will have to wait and see.
There are so many more sensible ways to treat a hangover such as grin and bear it as a lesson to not drink so much in future.
