2 Americans hospitalized in Moscow with possible thallium poisoning return to U.S.

Two American women who were hospitalized in Moscow for suspected thallium poisoning flew home to the United States on Wednesday, as colleagues and relatives tried to understand how the two were exposed to the potentially fatal chemical.

Dr. Marina Kovalevsky, 49, and her daughter, Yana, 26, arrived at Los Angeles International Airport and were taken in wheelchairs past news media to two waiting ambulances and placed on gurneys.

"We're going to the hospital straight away," Yana Kovalevsky told reporters. "We just got off a 12-hour flight. Please give us a break."

A cousin said earlier the women would be going to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

In Moscow, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said Russian officials were investigating how and when the women could have come into contact with poison.

Moscow police declined to comment, but the Ekho Moskvy radio reported authorities were checking cafes and restaurants in the area of the hotel where the women stayed. The women are Soviet-born and immigrated to the United States in 1989. They have visited Russia repeatedly since then, relatives and colleagues said.

The hospital where the women were treated since falling ill Feb. 24 said Wednesday morning they were in moderately serious condition, and Moscow's top public health doctor, Nikolai Filatov, was quoted by the RIA-Novosti news agency as saying that thallium poisoning had been confirmed.

In West Hollywood, Calif., where Marina Kovalevsky opened an internal medicine practice six or seven years ago, relatives said she left for Moscow on Feb. 14 to attend a friend's party.

Surrounded by the cities of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, West Hollywood has a large Russian-speaking immigrant community.

Oyuna Chuluun, a medical assistant at Kovalevsky's clinic, said she thought the apparent poisoning was an accident.

"We just don't believe someone would want to poison her," Chuluun said.

Stern said that after it was suspected she was poisoned, Marina Kovalevksy was given dialysis and took an antidote and her condition began to improve. He said that since both women had the same symptoms, it led to suspicion they were poisoned, but he believed it was "some sort of tragic mistake."

There was no indication the women had business or political interests in Russia that could have made them a target for poisoning.

"She (Marina) didn't have enemies. Everybody loved her. She's a great doctor," said Dr. Arkady Stern, a colleague.

Thallium, a colorless, tasteless substance that can be fatal in doses of as little as a gram, is a reputed poison of choice for assassins. It was initially suspected to be the toxin used in last year's fatal poisoning in London of former Russian KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, but it was later determined he had ingested the rare radioactive isotope polonium-210.

For poisoning purposes, thallium would be in a powdery or crystallized state. The poison works by knocking out the body's supply of potassium, essential for healthy cells, and attacking the nervous system, the stomach and kidneys. Its effects are not immediately noticeable and frequently take weeks to kick in; symptoms include hair loss and a burning sensation in extremities.

In the past, thallium has been used in rat poison, and it continues to be used industrially to manufacture products including glass lenses, semiconductors, dyes and pigments.

Thallium was used by Saddam Hussein, who poisoned several of his Iraqi opponents. It also reportedly was considered by the CIA for use against Fidel Castro, possibly by putting thallium powder in his shoes to prompt loss of his trademark beard.

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Associated Press writer Alicia Chang and Associated Press Television News correspondent Steve Fluty contributed to this report from West Hollywood, Calif., and Associated Press writer Mike Eckel contributed from Moscow.