Russia on Monday rejected European nations’ allegation that the Russian administration killed opposition leader Alexei Navalny using a rare poison derived from dart frog toxin as “biased and baseless".
“We naturally do not accept such accusations. We disagree with them. We consider them biased and baseless," news agency AFP quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.
The Kremlin’s response came after five European countries UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said the Russian opposition leader was poisoned with a rare and lethal toxin found in the skin of poison dart frogs.
Laboratory analysis of material samples found on Navalny’s body conclusively identified epibatidine, a lethal toxin that causes paralysis and respiratory arrest.
“We know the Russian state now used this lethal toxin to target Navalny in fear of his opposition," the UK’s Foreign Office said in a statement.
The European countries said Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to use the poison, and added that they would report Moscow to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for violating the Chemical Weapons Convention.
His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said last week that her husband’s death in an Arctic prison in 2024 was “murder" and is now a “scientifically proven fact".
While the Kremlin had previously attributed Navalny’s 2024 death in an Arctic penal colony to “natural causes", the joint intelligence report asserts that only a state actor could have processed and deployed such a rare biological weapon.
Meanwhile, the US said that it was “not disputing" the charge, but stayed clear of making any direct comments on it.
“Sometimes countries go out and do their thing based on the intelligence they have gathered. We obviously were aware of the report. It’s a troubling report. Certainly we don’t have any reason to question it or we’re not disputing or getting into a fight with these countries over it," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said.
Source: World News in news18.com, World Latest News, World News
