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leader of the Russian opposition Alexei Navalny died in prison after being poisoned with a deadly toxin found in Ecuadorian frogs, Britain and other allies said Saturday.
There is no other possible explanation than deliberate poisoning, European officials said, stressing that the frogs are not found in Russia.
Russian Prison Service reported in February 2024 that Navalny is dead after feeling unwell following a walk through a high-security facility in a remote town above the Arctic Circle where he was serving a combined 30 and a half years in prison.
He was 47 years old.
“The United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands are convinced that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a deadly toxin,” the British Foreign Office said in a joint statement on Saturday, citing “analyses of samples from Alexei Navalny.”
“Epibatidine is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America,” the statement added. “It is not found naturally in Russia.”
It is unclear how the toxin, 200 times more potent than morphine, was administered to Navalny.
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the Russian dissidentappeared at a press conference on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to announce the results of a Western analysis of his death, along with European foreign ministers.
Recalling the day she learned of her husband’s death, Navalnaya said she “was sure it was murder.” She added: “Today, these remarks have become scientifically proven facts. »
“Only the Russian government had the means, the motivation and the opportunity to use this poison against Alexei Navalny in prison,” said British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. “We are here today to shine a spotlight on the Kremlin’s barbaric attempt to silence the voice of Alexei Navalny.”
Britain notified the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, alleging a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, according to a press release.
Since Navalny’s death, Navalnaya has taken up the torch of her fight against official corruption and against the government of President Vladimir Putin.
In September, Navalnaya said she had managed to have laboratory tests carried out in an effort to confirm suspicions that he died at the hands of the Kremlin.
“We managed to transfer Alexei’s biological material abroad,” Navalnaya wrote, without giving further details about the tests or the countries involved.
News of Navalny’s death sparked outrage in the West, where many leaders blamed Putin. Former President Joe Biden said he was “neither surprised nor outraged at the same time”. The Kremlin then rejected what it considered to be “absolutely enraged statements”.
Navalny’s team later said his mother and lawyers had not been given access to his body and had been told the investigation into what killed him had been prolonged.
Navalnaya accused the Kremlin of hiding her body to cover up her assassination. He was previously poisoned with a military nerve agent during a business trip to Russia in 2020 – an assassination attempt he blamed directly on Putin.
Navalny’s body was finally returned a week after his death, and thousands of people came to mourn him at his funeral in Moscow.
Hundreds of people were arrested in the days following Navalny’s death for simply laying flowers in his honor at memorials across Russia.
Freddie Clayton
Freddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London.