Western nations allege exotic poison use, intensifying confrontation with Moscow over Navalny’s death.
Five European governments — the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands — have formally accused Russia of using a rare toxin to poison opposition figure Alexei Navalny, intensifying an already volatile diplomatic standoff with Moscow.
In a coordinated statement, the foreign ministries alleged the presence of “epibatidine,” a toxin associated with South American poison dart frogs and not known to occur naturally in Russia. The countries said Moscow had the “means, motive and opportunity” to deploy such a substance and confirmed plans to raise the matter with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, citing a potential breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper stated that the alleged use of a lethal toxin demonstrated the Kremlin’s “fear of political opposition.”
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, speaking at the Munich Security Conference, declared her husband’s 2024 death in an Arctic penal colony to be “a science-proven fact” of murder, reiterating her longstanding accusation that President Vladimir Putin was responsible.
Navalny, a prominent anti-corruption activist and vocal Kremlin critic, had been serving a 19-year prison sentence he described as politically motivated. Russian authorities maintain he died of natural causes after reportedly falling ill following a walk.
The dispute adds another flashpoint to strained Russia-West relations, with potential ramifications for sanctions, diplomatic engagement, and global chemical weapons enforcement mechanisms.
