‘Frog Toxin’ Bombshell: Allies Blame Russia for Navalny’s Death
A five-nation intelligence probe claims Alexei Navalny was killed with Ecuador dart frog toxin, calling it a grave Chemical Weapons Convention breach.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died two years ago from dart frog poison administered by the Russian government, a statement issued by five countries: the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands stated.
The US was not among the intelligence agencies making this claim.
Navalny died in a remote Arctic penal colony, where he was serving a 19-year sentence. Before his burial, samples were taken from his body and sent to labs in two countries.
The UK, calling the poisoning barbaric, said it would report Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OCC) for flagrant violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Intelligence agencies claimed that lab testing found that the deadly toxin found in the skin of the Ecuadorian dart frog (epibatidine) was present in Navalny's body samples and may have caused his death. The statement continued: “Only the Russian government had the means, motive, and opportunity to use this deadly toxin to target Navalny while he was imprisoned in a Russian prison colony in Siberia, and we hold it responsible for his death.”
“Epibatidine can be found naturally in wild dart frogs in South America. Dart frogs in captivity do not produce this toxin, and it is not found naturally in Russia. There is no obvious reason for its presence in Navalny’s body.”
While it was widely believed that Navalny was poisoned by the Russian government, the discovery of evidence of a specific poison in his system is a new development. His wife, Yulia Navalny, posted in September that evidence of poisoning was found in his body during an autopsy.
In a post on X, Yulia wrote that the poison “causes paralysis, respiratory arrest, and a painful death. I was convinced from day one that my husband was poisoned, but now the proof is there: Putin killed Alexei with a chemical weapon. I am grateful to European countries for their meticulous work over the past two years and for bringing the truth to light. Vladimir Putin is a murderer. He must be held accountable for all his crimes.”
The Kremlin has a long history of using poison as a weapon against its enemies. The 2006 death of Alexander Litvinenko from radioactive polonium in London, the 2018 nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, and the previous attempt to poison Navalny have cemented Russia's reputation as a country that uses poison to silence critics and defectors.
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The Foreign Office, which oversees intelligence agencies, said it has worked with partners in Sweden, France, the Netherlands, and Germany to establish the truth behind Navalny's death. The UK added: "We know that Russia has now used this deadly toxin to target Navalny out of fear of its opponents."
The purpose of releasing the information during the Munich Security Conference was to remind everyone that Russia had announced Navalny's death at the very beginning of the conference two years ago.
His wife, after some hesitation, delivered a short speech at the 2024 conference: "I want Putin and all his staff, everyone around him, his government, his friends, I want them to know that they will be punished for what they have done to our country. Justice will be served to my family and my husband. And that day will come soon."
UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Only the Russian government had the means, motive, and opportunity to use this deadly toxin against Alexei Navalny while he was imprisoned in Russia.
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“Today, together with his widow, the UK is shining a light on the Kremlin’s brutal plot to silence his voice.
“Russia saw Navalny as a threat. By using this type of poison, the Russian government demonstrated the vulgarity of its weapons and its profound fear of political opposition.”
The UK has sought to expose Russia’s nefarious attempts to suppress government opponents through the use of poison, including the attempted assassination of UK agent Sergei Skripal with Novichok on the streets of Salisbury in 2018. The UK has also made claims about the repeated use of chemical weapons by Russian troops on the battlefield in Ukraine.
In its statement, the UK said it was clear that Russia had not eliminated all its chemical weapons as claimed in 2017, and had not given up biological weapons, as required under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.
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