Poisoned Russian Reporter Seeks Asylum in US

A Russian journalist is seeking asylum in the United States after being allegedly poisoned, a British newspaper reported on Sunday. The U.S. embassy in Moscow, however, said they knew nothing about such case.

A Russian journalist is seeking asylum in the United States after being allegedly poisoned, The Sunday Times newspaper reported. The U.S. embassy in Moscow, however, said they knew nothing about such case.

The newspaper reported on Sunday that the Russian reporter had already been "promised political asylum". The identity of the female journalist was not disclosed, although she was referred to as Maria Ivanova. The newspaper said she is an "award-winning journalist, who has reported on events in the Caucasus". She claims to have been poisoned last year. "I have no doubt I was poisoned," said the journalist, who is to leave Russia for the United States this week. The reported does not know what substance she might have been poisoned with but claims she had suffered kidney failure after the poisoning.

The newspaper said the journalist had been followed, harassed and, on one occasion, beaten in connection with her publications. "I live in fear," she said in her first interview about her illness. "I feel trapped and constantly threatened by the security services."

Russia's RIA-Novosti news agency asked the U.S. embassy in Moscow to comment on the article and the diplomats said they were perplexed and knew nothing about any Russian journalists asking for political asylum. To ask for a political asylum in the United States, one must legally enter its territory, either having a visa or obtaining a refugee status, the embassy officials said.

The Kommersant newspaper suggested in its Monday issue that the journalist in question is Fatima Tlisova, an editor with the Russian news agency Regnum, who had previously worked for The Associated Press. However, in the same article Kommersant wrote that Tlisova herself strongly denied the possibility that she was the journalist mentioned by the British weekly.

Source: Moscownews