Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed using a lethal toxin derived from poison dart frogs, according to a joint statement issued by the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany, reports Baltimore Chronicle with reference to joint statement from the U.K. The European nations based their conclusion on detailed analyses of samples taken from Navalny, which confirmed the presence of Epibatidine, a potent neurotoxin naturally found in South American frogs.
Navalny, 47, died in a Russian Arctic penal colony in February 2024, as announced by Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service. Russian authorities claimed his death was due to natural causes. However, the European investigation highlighted the extreme toxicity of Epibatidine and the reported symptoms, concluding that deliberate poisoning was highly probable.
The statement emphasized that Navalny’s death occurred while he was in state custody, meaning that Russia possessed the means, motive, and opportunity to administer the poison. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, posted on social media that she had suspected from the beginning that her husband had been deliberately poisoned, stating, “Now there is proof: Putin killed Alexei with chemical weapon.” She also expressed gratitude to the countries involved in the investigation.
In response, the Russian Embassy in the U.K. dismissed the findings on social media, asserting that “There is no reason whatsoever to credit such ‘findings’ by Western experts.”
Navalny had previously been sentenced to 19 years in prison on extremism charges in 2023, in addition to the nearly 12-year term he was already serving in a penal colony east of Moscow. Later that year, he was transferred to a high-security facility located north of the Arctic Circle.
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