Navalny died after being poisoned by the Kremlin with a lethal toxin found in a South American poison dart frog.

BerlinThe Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died two years ago, poisoned by the Kremlin. with a lethal toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America, according to the governments of the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands after analyzing samples from the political prisoner. "These analyses have conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine. Epibatidine is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America. It is not found naturally in Russia," explained the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. "Russia claimed that Navalny died of natural causes. However, given the toxicity of epibatidine and the symptoms described, it is highly likely that the cause of his death was poisoning," the ministers stated, two years after his death. Navalny died on February 16, 2014, while imprisoned in Russia, meaning that Moscow "had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to administer this poison to him," according to these five European governments.

"From day one I was sure my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof: Putin killed Aleksei with a chemical weapon," reacted Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny's widow, who thanked European governments for "the meticulous work they have carried out."

Navalny's widow called Putin a "murderer" and demanded that he "be held accountable for all his crimes." Regarding the toxic substance, she explained that "it is found in the skin of the Ecuadorian poison dart frog. It causes paralysis, respiratory arrest, and a painful death."

Chemical weapons against the opposition

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot stated that the poisoning of Navalni with epibatidine, one of the deadliest nerve agents, shows that "Putin is willing to use chemical weapons against his own people to stay in power." "France pays tribute to this opposition figure, murdered for his fight for a free and democratic Russia," the French foreign minister added on social media. Navalni, considered the main opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin's policies, suffered various convictions and imprisonments throughout his political career, as well as a previous poisoning attempt. When he died, Navalni, 47, was serving a sentence in an Arctic prison.one of the toughest prisons in the country. The Russian prison service said at the time that the opposition leader had "felt unwell" after taking a walk. The Kremlin denied any involvement in his death.

A previous assassination attempt

"Russia's repeated violations of international law and the Chemical Weapons Convention are evident," declared the five European governments that blame the Kremlin for the poisoning death of the Russian opposition leader. The governments recalled that in August 2020, the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and their partners condemned Russia's use of the organic chemical compound Novichok to poison Navalny. This followed Russia's use of Novichok in Salisbury in 2018, which resulted in the death of a British woman, Dawn Sturgess. The nerve agent that killed her was the same one used to attack former Russian spy Sergei Skripal. In January 2021, Navalny, winner of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, was arrested in Russia upon his return from Germany after five months of recovery from a previous poisoning attempt, which he blamed on Putin.