Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in prison after being poisoned with a deadly toxin found in Ecuadorian poison dart frogs, the United Kingdom and other allies said.
This “barbaric” act, involving a neurotoxin classified as a chemical weapon, could only have been carried out by Vladimir Putin’s government, officials said on Saturday. It remains unclear how the frog toxin, known as epibatidine, was allegedly administered to Navalny, who was serving a sentence in a Siberian penal colony when he died two years ago.
Indigenous tribes in South America are known to use the toxin on the tips of arrows during hunting. The poison is estimated to be 200 times more powerful than morphine.
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the Russian dissident, appeared at a press conference on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to announce the findings, surrounded by the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. Those four countries, along with France, worked together to determine how the 47-year-old Navalny died. They plan to submit their findings to the United Nations chemical weapons watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
“It is difficult for me to find the right words,” Navalnaya said in English, visibly distressed. She was attending the Munich Security Conference on February 16, 2024, when news of her husband’s death broke. “It was the most terrifying day of my life. I stepped onto the stage and said that my husband, Alexei Navalny, had been poisoned. What else could have happened to Putin’s number one enemy in a Russian prison? But now I understand that these are not just words. This is scientific evidence.”
Russian authorities had previously claimed that the dissident’s death was not suspicious and was caused by “combined illnesses,” including arrhythmia. However, UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said Britain and its allies had worked “with fierce determination” to establish what had truly happened. British scientists at Porton Down are believed to have played a key role in identifying the frog toxin. It was not immediately clear how samples from Navalny’s body were obtained for testing, although Navalnaya previously said they had been smuggled out of Russia.
“As a result of work by the UK, Sweden and other partners, we have confirmed that a deadly toxin was found in Alexei Navalny’s body,” Cooper told reporters. “That toxin has been identified as one found in Ecuadorian poison dart frogs.”
She added: “Only the Russian government had the means, motive and opportunity to use this toxin against Alexei Navalny in prison. That is why we are here today – to shed light on the Kremlin’s barbaric attempt to silence Alexei Navalny and to show that the Russian government despises its citizens and is willing to use this deadly toxin.”
The German foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, described the substance as a “particularly powerful” nerve toxin. “Victims suffocate in agony,” he said.
Sweden’s foreign minister, Maria Malmer Stenergard, said uncovering the truth was essential in holding Russia accountable for its actions and continued denials. “With this information, we are turning to the OPCW… This is another way to increase pressure on Russia.”
The Kremlin has not yet responded to the allegations. Putin’s government had previously been accused of attempting to assassinate Navalny in 2020 using the Novichok nerve agent – the same chemical weapon believed to have been used in the 2018 poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.
