Five European countries accused Russia on Saturday of having "poisoned" opposition leader Alexei Navalny in prison in 2024 with a "rare toxin" found in poisonous frogs in South America. A staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Navalny died in February 2024 in an Arctic prison while serving a 19-year sentence.
First modification: 02/14/2026 - 15:13 Last modification: 02/15/2026 - 00:14
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The United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands indicated in a joint statement, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, that they are "convinced that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin," after analyzes carried out on samples of his body.
According to the European States, the toxin epibatidine, present in the skin of poison dart frogs native to South America, was detected in the samples and “very likely caused their death.”
The British Foreign Office stated that “only the Russian state had the means, the motive and the opportunity” to use that substance during his imprisonment in a penal colony in Siberia, and blamed Moscow for his death.
Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, maintained that it is now "scientifically proven" that her husband was murdered.
"Two years ago I said here that it was Vladimir Putin who killed my husband. Then they were words; today they are facts proven by science," she declared.
The five countries indicated that they notified Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and expressed concern that Moscow has not destroyed its entire chemical arsenal, accusing it of violating the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Navalny had already been poisoned in 2020 with the Novichok nerve agent during a campaign in Siberia, after which he was evacuated to Germany for treatment. The anti-corruption activist became the most visible figure in the opposition to the Kremlin, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of people in protests against the Russian government.
Epibatidine
This toxin is found naturally in wild dart frogs and can also be manufactured in a laboratory, as European scientists suspect with the substance used against Navalny.
Epibatidine acts in the body in a similar way to nerve agents, causing difficulty breathing, convulsions, epileptic seizures, decreased heart rate, and eventually death.
In that sense, as mentioned above, European officials claim to have a high degree of confidence in the assessment that the deceased opponent died from poisoning with this toxin.
When German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul was asked about the delay in the results of the investigation, the official said it had been a very complex process.
"No one but Putin's henchmen will be able to detail what happened on February 16, 2024 in the Russian penal colony. But it is evident that the Russian authorities had the possibility, the motive and the means to administer the poison to Navalny," Wadephul explained.
"This is the true face of today's Russia": Ursula von der Leyen
After the joint statement was made public, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, assured that Navalny's poisoning “was a cowardly act by a frightened leader.”
"Russia has long acted as a terrorist state, resorting to terrorist methods: poisoning political opponents, silencing journalists, invading peaceful neighbors," the European leader said on her social networks.
In that sense, he stated: "this is the true face of today's Russia."
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For its part, the Kremlin rejected a request for comment from the Reuters news agency. Despite this, the Russian Government has repeatedly denied its responsibility for the death of the opponent.
He has also denied poisoning Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian agent turned Kremlin critic, who died in London in 2006 after ingesting the radioactive isotope polonium-210.
A British investigation determined that two Russian agents killed Litvinenko, and that Vladimir Putin had probably approved the operation.
With AFP, AP and Reuters
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