Five European countries confirmed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by epibatidine, a rare neurotoxin from poison dart frogs, blaming the Kremlin and reporting Russia to the OPCW for breaching the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Five European nations – the U.K., France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands – have conclusively confirmed that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with epibatidine, a rare and lethal neurotoxin found in poison dart frogs. Analysis of samples from Navalny's body, who died in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16, 2024, serving a politically motivated sentence, confirmed the presence of the toxin. These countries jointly accused Russia, stating it had the 'means, motive and opportunity' to administer the poison, and are reporting Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, expressed certainty that her husband was poisoned and blamed Vladimir Putin, calling him a 'murderer.' Russian officials have vehemently denied the accusations, claiming Navalny died from natural causes. Epibatidine, while naturally occurring in dart frogs, can also be manufactured in a lab, which European scientists suspect was the case. It acts similarly to nerve agents, causing severe physiological distress and death. The European assessment follows Navalny's previous poisoning in 2020 with a nerve agent, which he also blamed on the Kremlin. The U.K. has further accused Russia of flouting international bans on chemical weapons, citing the 2018 Novichok attack in Salisbury and the 2006 polonium-210 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London, both of which the Kremlin denied involvement in.
