The British Foreign Office has blamed the Russian state for the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, stating that the cause was poisoning with a toxin from poisonous frogs.
The poison, epibatidine, is said to have been used when Navalny, aged 47, died suddenly on February 16, 2024, the Guardian reports.
Yulia Navalny, the widow of the Russian dissident, announced the findings at a press conference at the Munich Security Conference. She was flanked by the foreign ministers of Great Britain, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. Navalny announced her husband's death at the same gathering in 2024.
Navalny was being held in a prison about 64 miles north of the Arctic Circle at the time of his death. He had been sentenced to decades in prison, to be served in a "special regime" facility.
Navalny's allies have repeatedly accused the Kremlin of murdering him, allegations Moscow has dismissed as absurd. Russian officials insist he died from a combination of illnesses, including a heart arrhythmia caused by hypertension.
Traces of epibatidine were found after analysis of material samples taken from Navalny's body. The British government said the toxin is naturally found in poison dart frogs in the wild in South America, but that the frogs in captivity do not produce the substance, and that it is not found naturally in Russia.
The statement concluded: "There is no explanation for its presence in Navalny's body."
The UK has notified the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) of the alleged poisoning, accusing Russia of a "flagrant violation" of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The Kremlin has a long history of using poison as a weapon against its enemies. The 2006 death of Alexander Litvinenko in London from radioactive polonium, the 2018 nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, and the earlier attempted poisoning of Navalny have cemented Russia's reputation for resorting to toxins to silence critics and defectors.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "Since Yulia Navalny announced the loss of her husband here in Munich two years ago, the UK has pursued the truth about Alexei Navalny's death with fierce determination."
"Only the Russian government had the means, motive and opportunity to use this deadly toxin against Alexei Navalny during his imprisonment in Russia. Today, alongside his widow, the UK is shedding light on the Kremlin's barbaric plan to silence his voice."
Bonus video:
