“Only Russia had the means and the motives”

The European allies Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Sweden and the Netherlands have defended this version of his death and not what they maintain from the Kremlin.

Pointing to the Kremlin

Moscow claims that while Navalny was in his cell in a prison located north of the Arctic Circle, in northwest Siberia, “He felt sick, then collapsed and never regained consciousness”.

From the Munich Security Conference, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper explained that “only the Russian Government had the means, the motive and the opportunity” of using the venom of this amphibian against the Russian opponent.

The substance in question is epibatidine. According to the Pontifical University of Ecuador, epibatidine is a “potent analgesic alkaloid” which comes from the type of frog in question that lives in the south of the country.

This type of animal is a diurnal species that lives among the leaf litter of dense forests, in cocoa and banana crops.

The dart frog not found in Russiaat the same time that this amphibian in captivity does not produce the toxin either.

Navalny, a “threat”

“Russia saw Navalny as a threat,” Cooper detailed at the event. “By using this form of poison, the Russian state demonstrated the despicable tools it has at its disposal and the overwhelming fear it has of the political opposition,” he added.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer praised Navalny’s “enormous courage.” “His determination to expose the truth has left a lasting legacy,” added the president.

“I’m doing everything I can to defend our peopleour values ​​and our way of life from the threat of Russia and Putin’s murderous intentions,” he added.

Navalny died on February 16, 2024 in a Siberian prison at 47 years.

Already in September, the wife of the Russian opponent, Julio Navalnaya, said that the analysis of biological samples carried out by laboratories in two different countries showed that her husband had been “murdered”.

“Distract attention”

At that time, No further details were revealed about the poison allegedly used.nor about the samples or the analyses, but challenged the two laboratories to publish the results.

“I was sure from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is evidence. I thank the European States for the meticulous work they have done for two years and for uncovering the truth,” Navalnaya stressed.

But the Kremlin had a different opinion. Kremlin spokesperson Maria Zakharova indicated that “all conversations and statements are a information campaign intended to distract attention from the pressing problems of the West.

Elections

Alexei Navalny established himself as one of the most uncomfortable figures for the Putin regime of recent years, to the point of ending his life.

Continuing along this line, he is not the first dissident to have this ending. The former leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny PrigozhinHe supposedly died on August 23, 23 after a plane crash.

And, for his part, the former politician Boris Nemtsov He was shot dead in Moscow on February 27, 2015.

Navalny stood out for being an activist capable of mobilizing people in the streets of Russia in order to overthrow Vladimir Putin.

A political ambition against the Russian oligarchies that led him to want to take a leap to lead the country running for president.

A dream that never came to fruition after being accused of fraud. Navalny was arrested in multiple occasions between 2012 and 2014, and in 2021 in Germany.

Poisoning in 2020

The Russian dissident was an uncomfortable figure who questioned Putin’s power, which, little by little, was consolidating itself as leader in the Soviet country.

This caused him to be poisoned in 2020 with Novichokanother type of chemical weapon that could have cost him his death.

But all this did not intimidate Navalny, who believed that could free his country of Putin and the Russian oligarchy.