European Nations Reveal Shocking Kremlin Tactic: Dart Frog Venom Used to Poison Alexei Navalny

In a significant development, five European nations have accused the Kremlin of poisoning Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny with a rare toxin. According to statements released on Saturday, the lethal substance, identified as epibatidine, originates from poison dart frogs native to South America.

The foreign ministries of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands revealed that thorough analysis of Navalny’s biological samples confirmed the presence of this neurotoxin, which is absent in Russia’s natural environment.

In a united declaration, these countries asserted that Russia possessed the “means, motive, and opportunity” to carry out the poisoning. They are escalating the matter to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, citing a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

This announcement comes as Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, participates in the Munich Security Conference in Germany, marking the second anniversary of her husband’s death.

Navalny, known for exposing government corruption and organizing large-scale protests against the Kremlin, died on February 16, 2024, while incarcerated in an Arctic penal colony. He was serving a 19-year sentence that many, including himself, believed was driven by political motives.

“Russia saw Navalny as a threat,” British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said. “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.”

Navalny’s widow, said last year that two independent labs had found that her husband was poisoned shortly before he died. Navalnaya has repeatedly blamed Putin for Navalny’s death, something Russian officials have vehemently denied.

Navalnaya said Saturday that she had been “certain from the first day” that her husband had been poisoned, “but now there is proof.”

“Putin killed Alexei with chemical weapon,” she wrote on social network X, calling Putin “a murderer” who “must be held accountable.”

Russian authorities said that the politician became ill after a walk and died from natural causes.

Epibatidine is found naturally in dart frogs in the wild, and can also be manufactured in a lab, which European scientists suspect was the case with the substance used on Navalny. It works on the body in a similar way to nerve agents, causing shortness of breath, convulsions, seizures, a slowed heart rate and ultimately death.

Navalny was the target of an earlier poisoning in 2020, with a nerve agent in an attack he blamed on the Kremlin, which always denied involvement. His family and allies fought to have him flown to Germany for treatment and recovery. Five months later, he returned to Russia, where he was immediately arrested and imprisoned for the last three years of his life.

The U.K. has accused Russia of repeatedly flouting international bans on chemical and biological weapons. It has accused the Kremlin of carrying out a 2018 attack in the English city of Salisbury that targeted a former Russian intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, with the nerve agent Novichok. A British inquiry concluded that the attack “must have been authorized at the highest level, by President Putin.”

The Kremlin has denied involvement.