It “is real and it’s serious,” Mr. Burns said in the interview. “Could be, but I honestly cannot — I don’t want to suggest until we can draw some more definitive conclusions who it might be,” Mr. Burns said. But studies of victims elsewhere concluded that there was evidence of traumatic brain injury, though without the kind of impact normally associated with concussions. The mystery has been compounded by the fact that some attacks took place on Russian and Chinese soil, including against a C.I.A. officer in Moscow four years ago and a number of State Department officials in Guangzhou, China, in 2018.

Source: New York Times August 09, 2021 00:36 UTC