Alexei Navalny was murdered by Russia with a type of frog poison, the governments of Great Britain, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands have concluded.
In a joint statement on Saturday, NATO countries said they were “confident” that the Russian dissident had been poisoned by the Russian government with a “lethal poison” known as epibatidine, found in South American poison dart frogs. The frogs are not originally from Russia.
“Russia claimed that Navalny died of natural causes. But given the toxicity of epibatidine and the reported symptoms, poisoning was most likely the cause of his death,” the countries wrote. “Navalny died while in prison, meaning Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him.”
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Alexei Navalny was murdered by Russia with a type of frog poison, the governments of Great Britain, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands have concluded. (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
The conclusion was drawn based on samples taken from Navalny’s body.
Navalny, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most powerful opponents, died in a Russian prison in Siberia in 2024 after deciding to return to his home country in 2021.
Navalny was immediately arrested upon his return to his home country on charges including fraud and contempt of court, which were widely seen as politically motivated.
Russia has been accused by several European countries of poisoning Alexei Navalny. (Kremlin Press Office / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The activist was taken to a German hospital to recover in 2020 after Western powers including the US accused Russia of poisoning him with a nerve agent known as novichok, developed by the Soviet Union.
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Alexei Navalny after an arrest in Russia in 2017. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)
“Russia’s repeated disregard for international law and the Chemical Weapons Convention is clear,” the statement said, adding that Russia was also widely believed to have used novichok in England in 2018, leading to the death of a British woman named Dawn Sturgess.
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“These latest findings once again underscore the need to hold Russia accountable for its repeated violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention and, in this case, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention,” the statement said.
Alexei Navalny with his wife Yulia in 2018. (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
The countries added that they had written to the director general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to “inform him of this Russian violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.”
