Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said he was poisoned in prison in March and asked Bellingcat journalist Khristo Grozev to investigate the poisoning. He posted his request on Facebook.
“Dear Christo, I have been a longtime fan of your work, but I never would have thought that one day I would have to turn to you for help. As you may know, a leading laboratory in the United States and a well-known New York toxicologist have finally determined that I was poisoned in prison in March of this year. True, in March I was very ill, I had a high temperature, vomiting, heavy sweating, headache, tests for Covid were negative. Since then, my health has not improved. The prison authorities had to transfer me to the hospital, where the doctors immediately suspected poisoning, but the administration delayed it to the maximum so that the traces of poisoning would evaporate from the blood. Unfortunately for them, much later heavy metal poison was found in my hair and nails,” Saakashvili wrote.
The former president asked to study "suspicious Russian and Russian-related movements in Georgia." Pointing out that the head of the 5th service of the FSB, General Sergei Beseda and other employees of the service often came to Georgia.
“Could you sort out the shadow and oligarchic schemes that exist between Georgia and Russia? I am sure that you can find a lot there, and it will also help save my life,” Saakashvili added.
In late December, Saakashvili sent a letter to human rights activist Mark Feigin, in which he wrote that he had been poisoned on the orders of Vladimir Putin. Feigin posted the letter on his Twitter page.
“Dear Mark, happy holidays! Thanks for support. I am a long time fan and now watch regularly. Putin really ordered me to be killed in prison. American toxicologists determined for sure that I was poisoned in prison, and this caused all my symptoms. I'm trying to hold on. Good luck in your noble cause,” the letter says.