Five European countries conclude Russia poisoned Navalny with dart frog toxin

The foreign ministries of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands issued a joint statement Saturday concluding that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed by poisoning with epibatidine, a neurotoxin derived from a South American poison dart frog.

Analysis of samples from Navalny, who died in prison two years ago, "have conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine," according to the statement. The five countries said epibatidine is a chemical weapon under international law and does not occur naturally in Russia.

"Only the Russian state had the combined means, motive and disregard for international law" to carry out the killing, the statement said. The five nations announced they would report the Kremlin to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for alleged treaty violations.

Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny's widow, announced the finding at a press conference at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. She was flanked by the foreign ministers of the UK, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. Navalnaya had announced her husband's death at the same gathering in 2024.

Navalny, 47, died on February 16, 2024, while being held in a jail approximately 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle. He had been sentenced to decades in prison to be served in a "special regime" facility.

Navalny's allies have repeatedly accused the Kremlin of killing him. Moscow has dismissed such allegations as absurd. Russian officials have stated that Navalny died of a mixture of diseases, including heart arrhythmia triggered by hypertension.