Five European allies have blamed Russia for killing late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny using toxin from poison dart frogs while he was held in an Arctic penal colony two years ago, a claim Moscow has rejected as propaganda.
In a joint statement, Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said analyses of samples from Navalny’s body “conclusively” confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America and not found naturally in Russia.
“Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison,” they said.
The five countries said they were reporting Russia to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention. There was no immediate comment from the organisation.
The Russian government, which has repeatedly denied any responsibility for Navalny’s death, dismissed the latest allegations as “a Western propaganda hoax”, according to the Russian state’s TASS news agency, while the Russian embassy in London said: “One must ask what kind of person would believe this nonsense about a frog.”
Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died in an Arctic penal colony in February 2024 while serving a 19-year sentence that he believed to be politically motivated.
