Natalia Arno was fully inside the hotel room before she noticed the smell. It was sickly sweet, like a cheap perfume at the drug store, only more nauseating.
It was May 2 2023, and Arno had arrived in Prague the night before, on part of a European tour. The Russian activist and non-profit director had been on the road, meeting with donors and organisers looking for ways to bolster democracy back in Russia. On the previous leg of her trip, Arno had felt a bit tired, like she was coming down with something. But now, after a day of meetings and a business dinner, she was full of her usual energy. She was just going back to her room to change into jeans, before meeting up for drinks with colleagues.
Arno, a petite woman with warm eyes and an open face framed by a straight dark bob, was staying at the Hotel Garden Court, a tastefully renovated building nestled among the baroque architecture and cobbled streets that border the city’s old town. As she’d come down the long white hallway to her room, she realised the door was ajar. Arno tensed. She slowly opened the door, bracing for a potential intruder, but no one was there. She started searching for listening devices — under the table, near the bed, in her suitcase, with her clothes — but found nothing.