Russia's Navalny poisoned with dart frog toxin: European countries

Five European countries, including Britain, France and Germany, said Saturday 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.

Navalny, a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin, died in a Russian prison on February 16, 2024, while serving a 19-year 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.

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."

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer hailed Navalny's "courage in the face of tyranny" in a social media post after the findings were published, slamming "Putin's murderous intent".

- '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 her husband 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 Jean-Noel Barrot paid "tribute" to Navalny after the findings.

"We now know that Vladimir Putin is prepared to use biological weapons against his own people to remain in power," Barrot said in a post on X.

Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said: "I am proud that together we have been able to contribute to the truth coming out and that the evidence is now available to hold Russia accountable."

The Kremlin denies the charges.

- Chemical weapons watchdog -

Moscow has never fully explained Navalny's death, saying only that he fell ill and collapsed during a walk in his Arctic prison colony. Navalny and his foundation were considered "extremist" by the Russian authorities.

The European countries said they had reported Russia to the world's chemical weapons watchdog -- the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons -- over the finding.

"We are further concerned that Russia did not destroy all of its chemical weapons," the countries said, accusing Moscow of breaching the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Navalny was previously poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in 2020 while campaigning in Siberia and was flown to Germany on an emergency evacuation flight, where he spent months recovering.

Jailed upon his return to Russia in January 2021, he was convicted on a series of charges, including "extremism", but continued to campaign against Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukraine from behind bars.

The charismatic anti-corruption campaigner had rallied hundreds of thousands across Russia in anti-Kremlin protests as he exposed the alleged ill-gotten gains of Putin's inner circle.

Putin's main political opponent, Navalny was the only opposition leader who was able to galvanise big protests in Russia.

Public displays of opposition to Putin inside Russia have become exceptionally rare since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and clamped down on dissenters and critics of the war.