By Paddy Clancy

GARDAI (police) are satisfied that former Russian Premier Yegor Gaidar was not poisoned while in Ireland for a conference at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth.

But the 50-year-old remains at the center of a mystery about an illness that struck him down and which, members of his family suspect, was somehow caused by his enemies in the ruling regime in Moscow.

He was discharged from a Moscow hospital Monday to continue his recovery at home, although doctors were unable to determine what had made him ill.

His spokesman said, “The doctors say the illness was likely caused by a toxic factor. But they cannot determine the nature of the substance, so they are refraining from using the term ‘poisoning.’ The doctors can’t say that it is an ordinary illness.”

Gaidar was acting prime minister under former president Boris Yeltsin and architect of market reforms. He is now an influential academic. He was invited to Ireland to speak at the end of last month at the NUI Maynooth conference.

According to members of his party he began to feel ill during a stopover in Budapest. During the early part of the conference, including a welcoming speech by the president of NUI Maynooth, Professor John Hughes, an opening address by the Irish Ambassador to Russia, Justin Harman, and a brief contribution by former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Dr. Garret FitzGerald, Gaidar sat in the audience. He left the conference later to take a rest.

According to those present, he returned in the late afternoon and began delivering his paper on ‘‘civil society, minorities and migration.” He spoke slowly and deliberately, and then suddenly stopped.

He was silent for a few seconds, rose to his feet saying that he could not continue and walked out of the room with his hand to his mouth. He collapsed in the corridor and suffered a serious nosebleed. He also vomited, and blood was seen to come out of his mouth.

He was rushed to James Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, and two days later transferred to hospital in Moscow.

The proximity of Gaidar’s mystery illness to the death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in Britain from radiation poisoning gave rise to suspicions, particularly within his family.

Gardai launched a probe and Special Branch detectives interviewed staff at the James Connolly Hospital and the university. They also interviewed members of the diplomatic corps, in order to trace Gaidar’s movements from the time he arrived in Ireland until his departure back to Moscow.

They said all lines of inquiry indicated, however, that there is no link between Gaidar’s illness and the death of Litvinenko.