Western Allies Say Russia Murdered Navalny in 2024 With Poison From South American Dart Frogs

Five countries are presenting new evidence that Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was murdered by state authorities while held in an Arctic penal colony, claiming he was killed in February 2024 with a lethal toxin extracted from South American dart frogs. The foreign ministries of Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands made the claim in a joint announcement Saturday, which came while Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, was in Germany attending the Munich Security Conference. Russia’s Tass news agency promptly dismissed the claim as a hoax. The five countries said an analysis of samples taken from Navalny’s body “conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine,” a highly potent neurotoxin that affects the central nervous system causing muscle paralysis, seizures, respiratory failure, and death The nations said they have accused Russia, which is reported to have synthesized the poison, of violating the Chemical Weapons Convention in a report to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.Poison dart frogs are placed on exhibit at the American Museum of National History at New York City on May 25, 2004. Chris Hondros/Getty ImagesNavalny, a lawyer and anti-corruption activist, was one of the sharpest critics of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and his repeated exposures of corruption involving Mr. Putin and those in his circle became a major threat to the government.After surviving an attempted poisoning with a Novichok nerve agent while on a flight in Siberia in August 2020, Navalny was airlifted for treatment in Germany. Early the next year he returned to Russia, where he was immediately arrested in connection with a dubious prior conviction in an embezzlement case.He was transferred in December 2023 to the remote IK-3 “Polar Wolf” penal colony, where he died three months later. Authorities attributed his death to an irregular heartbeat triggered by a “critical increase in blood pressure” but his family and lawyers rejected that account as a “mockery.”Speaking Saturday at the Munich forum, the British foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, said that “only the Russian government had the means, motive and opportunity” to apply the poison epibatidine while Navalny was in its custody.“Russia saw Navalny as a threat,” she said, according to the BBC. “By using this form of poison the Russian state demonstrated the despicable tools it has at its disposal and the overwhelming fear it has of political opposition.”Yulia Navalnaya attends the 61st Munich Security Conference at Munich, Germany, on February 14, 2025. Johannes Simon/Getty ImagesMs. Navalnaya, who disclosed previously that Navalny’s tissue samples had been smuggled out of Russia, said in Munich Saturday, “I was certain from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof. I am grateful to the European states for the meticulous work they carried out over two years and for uncovering the truth.”Tass described the poisoning report as “a Western propaganda hoax.” It quoted the foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, saying: “When the test results are available and the formulas for the substances are disclosed, we will comment accordingly. Until then, all such assertions are merely propaganda aimed at diverting attention from pressing Western issues.”

Western Allies Say Russia Murdered Navalny in 2024 With Poison From South American Dart Frogs

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