By Jacki Thrapp
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died after he was allegedly poisoned by the Kremlin with the toxin from a poison dart frog, according to a joint statement by five European countries on Feb. 14.
The UK, Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands announced their findings on Feb. 14 after an analysis of samples from Navalny allegedly showed that there was a presence of epibatidine in his system.
Epibatidine is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America and is not naturally found in Russia.
“I was certain from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof: Russian President Vladimir Putin killed Alexei with a chemical weapon,” Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, wrote in a Feb. 14 post on X.
“I am grateful to the European states for the meticulous work they carried out over two years and for uncovering the truth. Vladimir Putin is a murderer. He must be held accountable for all his crimes.”
Navalny, who was Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, collapsed and died in February 2024 after a walk at a penal colony 1,200 miles east of Moscow in the Arctic Circle, where he was serving a 19-year sentence, according to a Russian prison official.
“Given the toxicity of epibatidine and reported symptoms, poisoning was highly likely the cause of his death,” the joint statement on Feb. 14 alleged.
The findings go against Russia’s claim that Navalny died of natural causes.
“I may disappoint you, but as far as we know, he indeed died as a result of a blood clot. And this has been more or less confirmed,” Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, told reporters on Feb. 25, 2024, as quoted by the Kyiv Post.
“This wasn’t sourced from the internet, but, unfortunately, natural causes.”
The European leaders suggested in the joint statement that “Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him.”
“These latest findings once again underline the need to hold Russia accountable for its repeated violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention and, in this instance, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention,” they said in the joint statement.
“Our Permanent Representatives to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have written today to the Director General to inform him of this Russian breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.”
The five countries’ leaders said they were concerned that Russia did not destroy all of its chemical weapons and that they wanted to use “all policy levers at our disposal to continue to hold Russia to account.”
“Alexei Navalny displayed huge courage in the face of tyranny,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote on X.
“His determination to expose the truth has left an enduring legacy, and my thoughts are with his family today. 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.”
