Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny attends a rally in support of political prisoners on Prospekt Sakharova Street in Moscow, Russia, on September 29, 2019.
Sefa Karacan | Anadolu | Getty Images
Five European countries announced on Saturday that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had been poisoned by the Kremlin with a deadly toxin derived from poison dart frog skin.
The foreign ministries of Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said that analysis of samples from Navalny, who died two years ago, “conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine.” This is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America, and is not found naturally in Russia.
“Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison,” the two countries said in a joint statement. They said they were reporting Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for violating the Chemical Weapons Convention.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Russia viewed Mr Navalny as a threat. By using this form of poison, the Russian state demonstrated the despicable means at its disposal and its overwhelming fear of political opposition.”
Navalny was President Vladimir Putin’s biggest enemy, rooting out corruption in the authorities and leading massive anti-Kremlin protests, before dying in a penal colony in the Arctic in February 2024. He was believed to have been politically motivated and was serving a 19-year sentence.
Mr Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said last year that two independent laboratories had determined that her husband had been poisoned shortly before his death. Navalny has repeatedly blamed President Putin for Navalny’s death, a charge Russian officials vehemently deny.
Navalnaya said on Saturday that she had been “convinced from day one” that her husband had been poisoned, “but now we have proof.”
“Putin killed Alexei with chemical weapons,” she wrote on social network X, calling him “a murderer who must be held accountable.”
Russian authorities said the politician fell ill after a walk and died of natural causes.
In 2020, Navalny was poisoned in a nerve agent attack, which he blamed on the Kremlin, which has always denied involvement. His family and allies fought to get him flown to Germany for treatment and recovery. Five months later, he returned to Russia, but was soon arrested and imprisoned for the last three years.
