Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, who died in February 2024 in prison, was “poisoned” by the Russian authorities with a “rare” toxin, according to an investigation by five countries including France and the United Kingdom, unveiled on Saturday. Analyzes identified epibatidine, a poison found in South American poison dart frogs.

Published on: 02/14/2026 - 2:18 p.m. Modified on: 02/14/2026 - 10:00 p.m.

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New revelations on the death of Vladimir Putin's former opponent. Alexeï Navalny, who died in February 2024 in murky circumstances in a Russian prison, was “poisoned” with a “rare toxin” by Moscow, five countries including the United Kingdom accused, Saturday February 14, during an announcement on the sidelines of the Munich security conference.

“The United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands are convinced that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin,” these countries said in a joint statement. “Only the Russian government had the means, the motive and the opportunity to use this lethal toxin against Alexei Navalny during his imprisonment in Russia,” declared British Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper, quoted in the press release.

Immediately after this announcement, his widow Yulia Navalnaïa declared that his “assassination” was now “proven by science”. “Two years ago (...) I came on stage and said 'Vladimir Putin killed my husband' (...) And today these words have become a fact proven by science,” she declared.

The European countries explain that “constant and collaborative work has confirmed, through laboratory analyses, that the deadly toxin present in the skin of Ecuadorian dart frogs (epibatidine) was found in samples taken from the body of Alexeï Navalny”. They add that this toxin "very probably led to his death". They wrote to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to report this poisoning.

Also read: Alexeï Navalny: a look back at the career of Vladimir Putin's number one opponent

“Kremlin’s barbaric project”

Moscow has never admitted that Alexeï Navalny was the subject of an assassination attempt nor recognized the results of European laboratory analyzes identifying the poison, evoking a Western plot.

Charismatic anti-corruption activist and fierce opponent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine launched in 2022, Alexeï Navalny died at the age of 47 in unclear circumstances in a penal colony in the Arctic, while he was serving a 19-year prison sentence for charges he denounced as political.

After his death, the authorities refused for several days to hand over his body to his relatives, which aroused the suspicions of his supporters who accused the authorities of having "killed" him and of trying to cover up his murder. Accusations denied by the Kremlin.

Also read Death of Alexeï Navalny: who are the other opponents of Putin who died prematurely?

“Today, alongside his widow, the United Kingdom is highlighting the Kremlin’s barbaric plan to silence her voice,” said the British Foreign Secretary.

“Ready to use the bacteriological weapon against his people”

The head of French diplomacy, Jean-Noël Barrot, also spoke on the subject on the social network

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In their statement, the five countries say they are "concerned by the fact that Russia has not destroyed all of its chemical weapons", accusing Moscow of violating the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Alexeï Navalny had already been poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok in 2020 while he was on an electoral campaign in Siberia. He and his supporters attributed it to the Kremlin, which always denied it. Transferred in a coma to Germany for treatment, he chose to return to Russia and was imprisoned for "extremism".

They also mention the death of a British woman in 2018, a collateral victim of the Novichok poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal.

An independent investigation, whose conclusions were released in December, underlined the “moral responsibility” of President Vladimir Putin in the death of this 44-year-old mother.

With AFP

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