Five European countries said on Saturday that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had been poisoned by a deadly poison derived from the skin of a bullfrog and accused the Russian government of being responsible for the attack, Reuters reported.
“The foreign ministries of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said that analysis of samples from Navalny, who died two years ago, “conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine. It is a toxin found in poisonous frogs in South America that does not occur naturally in Russia,” they said.
The countries said in a joint statement that “Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison.” They said they were reporting Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for violating the Chemical Weapons Convention.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Russia saw Navalny as a threat. By using this form of poison, the Russian state has demonstrated the despicable tools at its disposal and the enormous fear it has of the political opposition.”
Alexei Navalny, who built his profile by exposing alleged corruption and organizing large anti-Kremlin demonstrations as Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, died in February 2024 in an Arctic penal colony. He was serving a 19-year prison sentence, which he said was politically motivated, Reuters reported.
His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said last year that two independent laboratories had concluded that he had been poisoned shortly before his death. She has repeatedly held Putin responsible – a charge Russian officials strongly deny.
However, Russian authorities said Navalny fell ill after the walk and died of natural causes.
In 2020, Navalny was poisoned in a nerve agent attack that he blamed on the Kremlin, which has always denied involvement. His family and allies fought for him to be flown to Germany for treatment and recovery. Five months later, he returned to Russia, where he was immediately arrested and imprisoned for the last three years of his life, Reuters reported.
(With inputs from Reuters)