Five European countries said Saturday that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin derived from poison dart frogs, and accused Moscow of responsibility for his death in an Arctic prison colony. The foreign ministries of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said laboratory analysis of samples taken from Navalny “have conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine.” They described epibatidine as a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America that is not naturally found in Russia.
In a joint statement, the countries said “Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison.” They added that they were reporting Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for breaching the Chemical Weapons Convention, reports AP.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said “Russia saw Navalny as a threat. By using this form of poison the Russian state demonstrated the despicable tools it has at its disposal and the overwhelming fear it has of political opposition.”
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent political opponent, died in February 2024 in an Arctic penal colony, where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges he said were politically motivated. He had long campaigned against official corruption and organised large anti-Kremlin protests.
His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said last year that two independent laboratories had found evidence that her husband was poisoned shortly before his death. She has repeatedly accused Putin of being responsible, an allegation the Kremlin has denied.
Navalnaya said Saturday that she had been “certain from the first day” that her husband had been poisoned, “but now there is proof.” “Putin killed Alexei with chemical weapon,” she wrote on social network X, calling Putin “a murderer” who “must be held accountable.”
Russian authorities have said Navalny fell ill after a walk and died of natural causes.
Navalny previously survived a poisoning in 2020 involving a nerve agent that he blamed on the Kremlin, which denied any involvement. After being treated in Germany, he returned to Russia in 2021 and was immediately arrested. He remained in prison until his death three years later.
Arpita Ghosh (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at Times Now Digital, with over eight years of experience in digital journalism. She has worked across v...View More
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