American citizens poisoned in Russia

LOS ANGELES – A physician and her adult daughter returned to Los Angeles on Wednesday after being poisoned during a trip to Moscow, the latest in a string of Russian poisoning cases that have sparked international intrigue.

Marina Kovalevsky, a 49-year-old internal medical doctor well-known in L.A.’s Russian community, and her daughter Yana, 26, were sickened 13 days ago by thallium, an odorless, colorless toxin initially suspected in the death of a former Russian spy in London last year.

The women, both American citizens who have lived here for more than 15 years, arrived Wednesday afternoon at Los Angeles International Airport from Moscow to a throng of waiting TV cameras and reporters. They were taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Russian intelligence officials told the Moscow media that they believed the pair may have been poisoned in an attempt to cover up the theft of their jewelry, although family members who have been in contact with the women said neither had said anything about that.

The Kovalevskys traveled to Moscow in mid-February to attend the wedding of a friend’s niece, said their cousin Olga Tabarovskaya, but were hospitalized on Feb. 24 after reporting pain and numbness.

Tabarovskaya said she and other family members at first believed the women were suffering from food poisoning and were shocked when tests indicated thallium.

“I think it’s an accident because I can’t imagine anything else. It’s really bizarre,” said Tabarovskaya.

The role of poison in Russia’s political and business scenes came to prominence last year when former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko fell fatally ill in London. Litvinenko, a vocal critic of Russian leaders, died three weeks after being hospitalized with what doctors first suspected was thallium poisoning. Later tests indicated he had suffered a lethal dose of polonium-210 radiation poisoning.