Russian Leader Killed by South American Dart Frog Toxin

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died of poisoning with a deadly toxin found in South American dart frogs, the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands announced this Saturday, February 14, in a joint statement.

The countries stressed that their governments reached this conclusion based on samples taken from Navalny, which conclusively confirmed the presence of the neurotoxin epibatidine.

Alexei Navalny died two years ago in a prison in Siberia, Russia.

Britain, which carried out an investigation into the poisoning in that country of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in 2018 – which concluded last year that Russian President Vladimir Putin must have ordered the Novichok nerve agent attack – said Navalny’s poisoning demonstrated “an alarming pattern of behavior”.

It is unknown how the samples from Navalny’s body were obtained or where they were analyzed. The statement from European allies comes on the eve of the second anniversary of Navalny’s death and says that Moscow had the means, motive and opportunity to administer the poison while Navalny died in prison.

“Russia claimed that Navalny died of natural causes. But given the toxicity of epibatidine and the reported symptoms, poisoning was highly likely as the cause of his death,” said the joint statement, cited by Reuters, adding that the latest findings underline the need for Russia to be held accountable for “its repeated violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention and, in this case, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.”

The announcement of these conclusions comes, however, during the Security Conference in Munich, precisely the event at which the widow of the Russian opponent spoke two years ago, shortly after his death was announced. At the time, Yulia Navalnaya, called for Putin to be held accountable.

Now Navalny’s widow says she was always sure he had been poisoned. “But now there is proof,” he said on social media, thanking “European states for the meticulous work they have done over two years and for uncovering the truth.”

With Lusa