Aleksei Navalny Likely Poisoned With Rare South American Frog Toxin, European Governments Say
Foreign ministries from Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands announced in a joint statement Saturday that Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny was likely poisoned by a toxin originating from a frog species found in South America. Navalny died while in prison two years earlier.
Joint European investigation states Alexei Navalny’s body contained epibatidine toxin, strengthening allegations surrounding his prison death in Russia.
James Hill/The New York Times
The statement said toxicology testing on biological samples from Navalny’s remains identified epibatidine, a dangerous chemical compound.
Authorities noted that epibatidine exists naturally in poison dart frogs from South America and is not naturally present within Russia.
The discovery challenges Russia’s official account that Navalny died of natural health-related causes. When he died in 2024, Navalny was considered the most prominent critic of the Russian government and was serving time in a maximum-security prison facility located in the Arctic.
At the Munich Security Conference, Yulia Navalnaya spoke to reporters, calling the report confirmation of what Navalny’s team has argued for years — that Russian President Vladimir V. Putin was directly responsible for the death.
She stated that Navalny was killed using a chemical weapon and said the findings provide another direct form of proof. She added that accusations against Putin are not new but said the report further supports them.
