World News 13-12-2004 Spy Chief Accused of Poisoning who: President Viktor Yushchenko what: Was poisoned during Ukranian election campaign, blood tests reveal where: Vienna when: Yesterday snippet: Opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko underwent blood tests in Vienna this weekend which proved that he had, as previously claimed, been poisoned during his campaign and had very likely been close to death. "The swollen blisters that have disfigured his face were caused by 1,000 times the normal level of dioxin in his body," says The Independent, following a statement by Dr Michael Zimpfer, the director of the Rudolfiner clinic that treated him. The man suspected of trying to kill Mr Yushchenko is Igor Smeshko, the head of the Ukraine secret service, the SBU, says The Scotsman. "The official dined with Mr Yushchenko the night he was poisoned, and medical experts say the dioxin is likely to have been administered through the food and drink." "For Ukrainian Westernisers, it is further proof of what they are up against: a police state which, true to its Soviet roots, is both murderous and bungling," says The Telegraph`s leader today. "For Ukrainian Slavophiles, the episode is yet another Western plot to discredit their candidate, Viktor Yanukovich. Why, they ask, should these doctors change their tune just as the new election campaign gets under way? How can they deduce from Mr Yushchenko`s condition that he was deliberately poisoned? And even if he was, what evidence is there that his political opponents were responsible?" [... more]

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