Former Russian PM May Have Been Poisoned

Former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar speaks at a news conference in Moscow, Tuesday, in this Sept. 23, 2003, file photo. Gaidar is being treated in a Moscow hospital Wednesday, several days after falling violently ill at a conference in Ireland, his daughter said. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky) (Dmitry Lovetsky - AP)

MOSCOW -- Doctors treating former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, who fell ill in Ireland last week, believe he was poisoned, an aide said Thursday.

"Doctors don't see a natural reason for the poisoning and they have not been able to detect any natural substance known to them" in Gaidar's body, spokesman Valery Natarov said. "So obviously we're talking about poisoning (and) it was not natural poisoning."

Gaidar, 50, was feeling better Thursday, Natarov said.

"His condition is stable and improving. Doctors say there is no threat to his life at the moment," the aide said.

Gaidar, one of the leaders of a liberal opposition party who served briefly as prime minister in the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin, began vomiting and fainted during a conference in Ireland on Nov. 29, and was rushed to a hospital's intensive care unit.

Gaidar's illness follows the poisoning of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London just one day before Gaidar fell ill.

Andrei Lugovoy, another former KGB spy who met with Litvinenko on the day he fell ill, served as Gaidar's bodyguard at one point.