European powers have issued a joint statement alleging that former Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned to death using a toxin commonly known as “frog poison."
Navalny, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, collapsed and died in a penal colony in Siberia in February 2024.
The statement, released by United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, and Netherlands, said the conclusions were based on analyses of samples taken from Navalny’s body. Investigators reported detecting epibatidine, a powerful toxin associated with poison dart frogs.
According to the European assessment, these frogs are native to Central and South America and are not found in Russia, reinforcing claims that Navalny was deliberately poisoned. The statement noted that Navalny died while in state custody, arguing that Russia had the means, motive, and opportunity to carry out the poisoning. It further accused Russia of repeated violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention and, in this case, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, while expressing concern that Moscow may not have fully dismantled its chemical weapons stockpiles.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, thanked the European governments for their investigation, saying she had believed from the outset that her husband was poisoned and that the findings now provide proof. She praised the two-year investigative effort for uncovering the truth.
The Kremlin did not issue a response to the European statement.