A former Russian prime minister and head of a liberal opposition party
Born: March 19, 1956
May also have been poisoned during a conference Nov. 24 in Ireland.
Gaidar became violently ill and was rushed to a hospital in Ireland, but was subsequently returned to Russia where he was improving.
Doctors were unable to "detect any natural substance known to them" in Gaidar's body, leading them to believe he may have been poisoned. However, they have not been able to determine what caused specifically his illness and have asked medical experts in Ireland for more information on his condition immediately after he became sick.
Doctors in Ireland initially suspected Gaidar's diabetes or some sort of ailment caused his illness. A spokesman for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, said that authorities had "received no evidence of anything untoward about this."
Gaidar, a liberal economist whose moderate criticism of the Kremlin is largely limited to economic issues, served briefly as prime minister in the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin in post-Soviet Russia's most liberal and democratically oriented government. While he is one of the leaders of a liberal political party, liberals have been severely sidelined under Putin and he is not prominent.
Gaidar is unpopular among many Russians who blame the Western-backed economic policies he pursued as prime minister for the decline in their living standards following the Soviet collapse.
His daughter, Maria, is a well-known liberal youth activist and vociferous Kremlin critic.
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