LONDON (AP) 鈥� Russian opposition leader was poisoned by the Kremlin with a rare and lethal toxin found in the skin of poison dart frogs, five European countries said Saturday.
The foreign ministries of the U.K., France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said analysis in European labs of samples taken from Navalny’s body 鈥渃onclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine.鈥� The neurotoxin secreted by dart frogs in South America is not found naturally in Russia, they said.
A joint statement said: 鈥淩ussia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison.鈥�
The five countries said they were reporting Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention. There was no immediate comment from the organization.
, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin鈥檚 fiercest foe, in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16, 2024, while serving a 19-year sentence that he believed to be politically motivated.
鈥淩ussia saw Navalny as a threat,鈥� British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said. 鈥淏y 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.鈥�
French Foreign Minister Jean-No毛l Barrot wrote on X that the poisoning of Navalny shows 鈥渢hat Vladimir Putin is prepared to use biological weapons against his own people in order to remain in power.鈥�
The European nations鈥� assessment came as Navalny鈥檚 widow, Yulia Navalnaya, attended the in Germany, and just before the second anniversary of Navalny鈥檚 death.
She said last year that two independent labs had found that her husband was poisoned shortly before he died. She has repeatedly blamed Putin for her husband’s death. Russian officials have vehemently denied the accusation.
Navalnaya said Saturday that she had been 鈥渃ertain from the first day鈥� that her husband had been poisoned, 鈥渂ut now there is proof.鈥�
鈥淧utin killed Alexei with chemical weapon,鈥� she wrote on She said Putin was 鈥渁 murderer鈥� who 鈥渕ust be held accountable.鈥�
Russian authorities said that the politician 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.
European officials said they had a high degree of confidence in the assessment that Navalny died from epibatidine poisoning. Asked why the results had taken so long, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that it had been 鈥渁 complicated process.鈥�
Wadephul said 鈥渘o one but Putin鈥檚 henchmen will be able to say in detail what happened on Feb. 16, 2024, in the Russian penal colony. But it is clear that Russian authorities had the possibility, the motive and the means to administer the poison to Navalny.鈥�
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 and imprisoned for of his life.
The U.K. has accused Russia of repeatedly flouting international bans on chemical and biological weapons. It accuses 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 . Skripal and his daughter became seriously ill, and a British woman, Dawn Sturgess, died after she came across a discarded bottle with traces of the nerve agent.
A that the attack 鈥渕ust have been authorized at the highest level, by President Putin.鈥�
The Kremlin has denied involvement.
Russia also denied poisoning , a former Russian agent turned Kremlin critic who died in London in 2006, after ingesting the radioactive isotope polonium-210. A British inquiry concluded that two Russian agents killed Litvinenko, and Putin had 鈥減robably approved鈥� the operation.
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Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris, Mike Corder in The Hague and Philipp Jenne in Munich contributed to this report.
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