Russia opposition leader Navalny killed with deadly frog toxin in 2024 — UK, allies

Navalny

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in prison after being poisoned with a deadly toxin found in Ecuadorian dart frogs, the UK and other allies have claimed.

The neurotoxin, called epibatidine, is 200 times stronger than morphine, with Germany’s foreign minister warning that “victims suffocate in agony.”

The discovery was announced by Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, at a press conference on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, flanked by the foreign ministers of the UK, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

“It is hard for me to find the right words,” she said in English, Sky News reported on Saturday.

“It was the most horrible day in my life. I came to the stage and I said my husband, Alexei Navalny, was poisoned.

“What could else happen with Putin’s number one enemy in a Russian prison? But now I understand and I know it is not just words. It is scientific proof,” she alleged.She had been at the Munich Security Conference when the news of her husband’s death broke on February 16, 2024.

The UK and its allies, including France, have been investigating the circumstances of Navalny’s death, which occurred almost exactly two years ago while he was in a penal colony in Siberia.

They plan to submit their findings to the UN’s chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Yvette Cooper, the British foreign secretary, said: “As a result of the work of the UK, Sweden and other partners, we have confirmed that a deadly toxin was found in Alexei Navalny’s body.

“And that toxin has been identified as a toxin that is found in Ecuadorian Dart Frogs.”