Navalny poisoned with dart frog toxin in Russian prison, European states say

AFP | Munich

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Germany Five European states, including Britain, France and Germany, said yesterday that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed by a “rare toxin” from a dart frog and that the Russian state was the prime suspect in the death.

Navalny, a staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in an Arctic prison on February 16, 2024, while serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges widely seen as retribution for his opposition.

“The UK, Sweden, France, Germany and The Netherlands are confident that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin,” the countries said in a joint statement released at the Munich Security Conference. It said the results followed “analyses of samples” from his body.

According to the European states, a toxin found in the skin of South American dart frogs known as epibatidine was found on laboratory analyses of samples from his body.

“Russia claimed that Navalny died of natural causes. But given the toxicity of epibatidine and reported symptoms, poisoning was highly likely the cause of his death,” said the statement.

“Navalny died while held in prison, meaning Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him,” the countries said.

Britain’s foreign office said separately that “only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin”. It added: “We hold it (Russia) responsible for his death”.

‘Science proven facts’

Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnya, said it was now “science-proven” that the Kremlin opponent had been murdered.

“Two years ago I came on stage here and said that it was Vladimir Putin who killed my husband,” Navalnaya said on the sidelines of the conference in Germany.

“I was of course certain that it was a murder... but back then it was just words. But today these words have become science-proven facts,” Navalnaya added.

Navalnaya last September said that laboratory analysis of smuggled biological samples found he was killed by poisoning.

“Today, beside his widow, the UK is shining a light on the Kremlin’s barbaric plot to silence his voice,” UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who met Navalnaya while attending the Munich conference, said in a statement.

French foreign minister JeanNoel Barrot paid “tribute” to Navalny after the findings.