London: A coalition of five European nations on Saturday accused the Kremlin of using a rare and lethal toxin derived from South American poison dart frogs to assassinate Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Foreign ministries from the U.K., France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands released a joint statement asserting that sophisticated laboratory analysis of samples from Navalny’s body "conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine." The neurotoxin, which is not indigenous to Russia, causes respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.

The announcement coincided with the Munich Security Conference, occurring just days before the second anniversary of the activist's death. The European allies stated they are formally reporting the findings to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as a "flagrant violation" of international treaties.

"Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison," the joint statement read. "Only the Russian state had the combined means, motive and disregard for international law to carry out the attack."

Widow Calls for Accountability

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late dissident, addressed the conference on Saturday, stating she had been "certain from the first day" that her husband was murdered.

"Putin killed Alexei with a chemical weapon," Navalnaya wrote on social media platform X, describing the Russian president as a "murderer" who must be brought to justice. Her husband died on Feb. 16, 2024, in an Arctic penal colony while serving a 19-year sentence. At the time, Russian officials claimed he succumbed to "natural causes" after a walk.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, speaking from Munich, characterised the use of the rare toxin as a sign of the Kremlin's "overwhelming fear" of domestic opposition. "By using this form of poison, the Russian state demonstrated the despicable tools it has at its disposal," Cooper said.

The Science of Epibatidine

Epibatidine is a highly potent alkaloid found in the skin of certain Ecuadorian frogs. While it can be found in nature, European scientists believe the substance used on Navalny was synthesised in a laboratory.

  • Mechanism: The toxin paralyses the nervous system, leading to seizures, convulsions, and eventually death by asphyxiation.
  • Previous Attacks: The findings mirror the 2018 poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury and Navalny’s own 2020 near-fatal encounter with Novichok. In both instances, Western intelligence concluded the attacks were authorised at the highest levels of the Russian government.

Navalny’s allies spent years fighting for transparency regarding his treatment. After surviving the 2020 attack, he returned to Russia in 2021, where he was immediately detained. He spent his final three years in increasingly harsh prison conditions before his death last February.

The Kremlin has not yet officially responded to the specific allegations regarding epibatidine, though it has historically dismissed all accusations of state-sponsored poisoning as "rumour-mongering."

With inputs from AP