A joint statement issued by the UK, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands formally held the Russian state responsible for Navalny’s death…reports Asian Lite News
Alexei Navalny was killed using a toxin derived from a South American dart frog, the UK and several European allies have concluded, two years after the Russian opposition figure died in a remote Siberian penal colony.
Announcing the findings at the Munich Security Conference, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said laboratory analysis of material samples found on Navalny’s body identified the presence of epibatidine — an extremely rare and highly potent neurotoxin.
“Only the Russian government had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin to target Navalny during his imprisonment,” Cooper said, adding that there was “no innocent explanation” for the substance being detected.
A joint statement issued by the UK, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands formally held the Russian state responsible for Navalny’s death. The allies said epibatidine occurs naturally only in certain wild poison dart frogs in northern South America and is not found in Russia.
“Dart frogs in captivity do not produce this toxin and it is not found naturally in Russia,” the statement said, describing its presence in Navalny’s body as conclusive evidence of deliberate poisoning.
The UK has informed the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons of what it called Russia’s breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer praised Navalny’s “huge courage” and said his determination to expose corruption had left an enduring legacy. “I am doing whatever it takes to defend our people, our values and our way of life from the threat of Russia and Putin’s murderous intent,” he said.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, who met Cooper at the conference, said she had believed from the outset that her husband had been poisoned. “I was certain from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof,” she said, thanking European governments for what she described as meticulous investigative work over two years.
Navalny, 47, died on 16 February 2024 while serving a prison sentence in an Arctic penal colony. Russian authorities said he had taken a short walk, complained of feeling unwell and then collapsed, never regaining consciousness.
The Kremlin has rejected the new allegations. According to Russia’s state-run Tass news agency, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed the findings as an “information campaign” designed to distract from Western domestic problems.
Epibatidine was first isolated from a species of poison dart frog native to Colombia and Ecuador. Though researchers once explored its potential as a painkiller, toxicologists determined it was too dangerous for clinical use.
Speaking to BBC Russian, toxicology expert Jill Johnson described epibatidine as “200 times more potent than morphine”. By acting on receptors in the central nervous system, she said, it can cause muscle twitching, seizures, paralysis, respiratory failure and death.
The toxin is considered exceptionally rare, occurring only in tiny quantities in wild frogs that consume a specific diet. Frogs raised in captivity do not produce it, leading scientists to believe it is acquired through environmental sources.
Navalny had long been one of President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critics. In 2020 he survived a poisoning with a Novichok nerve agent and received treatment in Germany before returning to Russia, where he was immediately arrested.
Western governments have repeatedly accused Moscow of targeting political opponents at home and abroad. The latest findings deepen diplomatic tensions and renew scrutiny over Russia’s compliance with international chemical weapons agreements, as allies insist there is no plausible alternative explanation for the toxin’s presence in Navalny’s body.
