Russian opposition figure and outspoken Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, who died two years ago, was killed whereas in jail by a deadly toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America, 5 European international locations have mentioned in a statement Saturday.
Analyses of samples taken from Navalny’s physique have “conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine,” the assertion mentioned. The substance will not be found naturally in Russia, it added.
The 5 international locations – UK, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands – mentioned Moscow “had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison” to Navalny whereas he was held in a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle.
Only “the Russian state had the combined means, motive and disregard for international law” to contribute to Navalny’s loss of life, they added.
Russian officers have repeatedly denied being accountable for Navalny’s loss of life. NCS has reached out to the Kremlin for remark.
The announcement got here through the Munich Security Conference in Germany, throughout which Navalny’s loss of life was introduced in 2024.
During the occasion two years in the past, Navalny’s spouse Yulia Navalnaya got here on stage on the convention in tears and acquired a standing ovation.
In a post on X Saturday, Navalnaya mentioned that she “was certain from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof: (Russian President Vladimir) Putin killed (Alexey) with chemical weapon.”
“I am grateful to the European states for the meticulous work they carried out over two years and for uncovering the truth,” she mentioned, including: “Vladimir Putin is a murderer. He must be held accountable for all his crimes.”
When Navalny died, the Russian jail service mentioned that he had “felt unwell after a walk” and “almost immediately” misplaced consciousness.
He had been imprisoned in an Arctic penal colony since returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, the place he had been handled after being poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Russia denied involvement then, too, with Putin saying on the time that if the Russian safety service had wished to kill Navalny, it “would have finished” the job.
Navalny, who had organized anti-government street protests and used his weblog and social media to reveal alleged corruption in the Kremlin and in Russian enterprise, was seen as some of the critical threats to Putin earlier than his loss of life.
In a 2018 interview with NCS, he mentioned that he had a “clear understanding” of the dangers concerned in taking up the federal government.
“But I’m not afraid and I’m not going to give up on what I’m going to do. I won’t give up on my country. I won’t give up on my civil rights. I won’t give up on uniting those around me who believe in the same ideals as me. And there are quite a lot of people like that in Russia,” he mentioned.
In an announcement launched on Saturday, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper mentioned that “Russia saw Navalny as a threat. 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 political opposition.”
The 5 international locations mentioned in their joint assertion that they’ve written to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons about what they known as a “Russian breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.”
NCS’s Sebastian Shukla, Anna Chernova and Christian Edwards contributed to this reporting.