European Nations Says Russia Poisoned Alexei Navalny With Dart Frog Toxin
Five European countries have accused Russia of poisoning opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, with a rare and deadly toxin found in poison dart frogs, presenting what they call conclusive evidence that the Kremlin murdered President Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken critic.
The foreign ministries of Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands announced Saturday that European laboratories analysed samples from Navalny’s body and found epibatidine, a lethal neurotoxin that poison dart frogs in South America secrete through their skin. The substance does not occur naturally in Russia.
“Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison,” the five countries said in a joint statement.
The European nations reported Russia to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for violating the Chemical Weapons Convention. The organisation has not yet commented.
Navalny, who built his reputation fighting official corruption and organising massive protests against the Kremlin, died in an Arctic penal colony on February 16, 2024. Authorities imprisoned him for 19 years in what he always insisted was political persecution.
“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,” British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot wrote on X that poisoning Navalny shows “that Vladimir Putin is prepared to use biological weapons against his own people in order to remain in power.”
Widow Says She Knew From Day One
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, attended the Munich Security Conference in Germany as the European assessment came out, just before the second anniversary of her husband’s death.
Navalnaya said last year that two independent labs found someone poisoned her husband shortly before he died. She has repeatedly blamed Putin for the killing. Russian officials have strongly denied the accusation.
Navalnaya said Saturday that she had been “certain from the first day” that someone poisoned her husband, “but now there is proof.”
“Putin killed Alexei with a chemical weapon. Putin is a murderer who must be held accountable,” she wrote.
TGM gathered that Russian authorities claimed the politician became ill after taking a walk and died from natural causes.
How The Toxin Works
Wild dart frogs naturally produce epibatidine, but scientists can also synthesise it in laboratories. European scientists suspect Russia produced the substance in a lab and used it on Navalny. The toxin attacks the body similarly to nerve agents, causing breathing difficulties, convulsions, seizures, a slowed heart rate and eventually death.
European officials said they have strong confidence in their assessment that epibatidine poisoning killed Navalny. When reporters asked why the results took so long, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul explained that scientists faced “a complicated process.”
Wadephul said “no one but Putin’s henchmen will be able to say in detail what happened on Feb. 16, 2024, in the Russian penal colony. But it is clear that Russian authorities had the possibility, the motive and the means to administer the poison to Navalny.”
Navalny Survived Earlier Poisoning
Someone targeted Navalny with nerve agent poisoning in 2020 in an attack he blamed on the Kremlin, which denied any involvement. His family and supporters fought to get doctors to fly him to Germany for treatment and recovery.
Five months later, Navalny returned to Russia, where authorities immediately arrested him. He spent the final three years of his life in prison.
