MOSCOW, February 15 (ANI): Five European nations have accused the Russian government of poisoning and killing opposition leader Alexey Navalny with a rare toxin derived from South American dart frogs, escalating international condemnation over the Kremlin critic’s death, Al Jazeera reported.
In a joint statement issued Saturday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, the foreign ministries of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands said laboratory analysis of samples taken from Navalny’s body “conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine,” a toxin naturally found in poison dart frogs and not known to occur in Russia.
The governments said their findings leave no “innocent explanation” for the presence of the chemical.
“The UK, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands are confident that Alexey Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin,” the statement said, asserting that Moscow had the “means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison.”
Russian authorities have denied the allegations, describing them as Western propaganda. Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said she would comment once the test results are made public, which has not yet occurred.
Navalny, a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin known for campaigning against corruption and authoritarianism, died on February 16, 2024, in an Arctic penal colony while serving a 19-year sentence that he described as politically motivated. European governments now contend that his death was the result of deliberate poisoning rather than natural causes.
At the Munich conference, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper met Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and said the new evidence sheds light on what she described as “the Kremlin’s barbaric plot to silence his voice.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot wrote on X that the alleged poisoning demonstrates that “Vladimir Putin is prepared to use biological weapons against his own people in order to remain in power.”
The five governments said they would refer Russia to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for an alleged breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention, a move that could lead to further diplomatic tensions and international scrutiny.
Navalny’s death in 2024 prompted global outrage. At the time, Russian authorities said he fell ill after a walk and died of natural causes. The European findings challenge that account, citing the presence of epibatidine, a toxin known to cause rapid respiratory failure, convulsions, and cardiac arrest.
As leaders continue to gather at the Munich Security Conference, the dispute over Navalny’s death threatens to further strain already tense relations between Russia and Western nations over issues including Ukraine, security cooperation, and human rights. (ANI)
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