Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in a remote Siberian prison two years ago, was almost certainly poisoned with a deadly toxin found in South American dart frogs, five European governments said Saturday.
A joint statement from Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands said they were “confident” Navanly had been poisoned after an analysis of samples taken from his body “conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine,” and that the Russian government was the likely culprit.
“Russia claimed that Navalny died of natural causes. But given the toxicity of epibatidine and reported symptoms, poisoning was highly likely the cause of his death. Navalny died while held in prison, meaning Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him,” it continued.
The five countries said they were reporting the case to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, alleging Russia violated the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Russian authorities had previously claimed Navalny, 47, died of natural causes while serving several sentences totaling more than 30 years at a high-security prison above the Arctic Circle.
“Scientists from five European countries have established: my husband, Alexei Navalny, was poisoned with epibatidine—a neurotoxin, one of the deadliest poisons on earth. In nature, this poison can be found on the skin of the Ecuadorian dart frog. It causes paralysis, respiratory arrest, and a painful death,” she said.
“I was certain from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof: Putin killed Alexei with chemical weapon. I am grateful to the European states for the meticulous work they carried out over two years and for uncovering the truth. Vladimir Putin is a murderer. He must be held accountable for all his crimes.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the poisoning shows that “Vladimir Putin is prepared to use chemical weapons against his own people to remain in power. France pays tribute to this opposition figure, killed for his fight in favor of a free and democratic Russia.”
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper added: "Only the Russian government had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to use that toxin against Alexei Navalny in prison. We are here today to shine a spotlight on the Kremlin’s barbaric attempt to silence Alexei Navalny’s voice.”
Russia announced Navalny’s death on Feb. 16, 2024, just as that year’s Munich Security Conference opened. On that day, Navalnaya delivered a speech, pledging that Putin “would pay for what they have done to our country, to my family, and to my husband.” After a weeklong dispute over custody, Russia released Navalny’s body to his mother.
You really don't understand anything about the people you claim to oppose, do you?
I've never seen a tankie deny that the Russian government kills its opponents. It's well documented. Everyone's aware. This particular article is a little strange because it's openly anti-Russian governments making an anti-Russian claim, and we wouldn't generally accept that in journalism if the tables were turned, but it's honestly not an extraordinary claim and certainly in line with Russian intelligence MO. It's even been analyzed that they do things like use rare and exotic poisons to signal that it was their intelligence that did it (although that gets dicey with copycats).
Tankies will say he was a corrupt Western puppet any way. That's pretty normal, though. Just like Machado, Guaido, Pinochet, al-Julani/al-Sharaa and so many others. The US has puppets in nearly every single one of its targets. This is not a specious claim.
The same is true of your strange take on the tankie position on Prigozhin's death. There's two possible takes, none of which make your strawman. Either Prigozhin was compromised, acting against Russia for anti-Russian interests (like the US) and he was assassinated for his actual coup attempt. Or Prigozhin was Russian counter-intelligence and cultivated a relationship with anti-Russian influences to smoke out sleeper cells through a managed coup, at which point he was either extracted and his death faked, or he was burned.
Calling Prigozhin a "Putin critic" is a little silly though isn't it? The man ran tanks against the capital. At face value, that's a traitor. It's a legit reason to kill someone. The fact that he was killed in the way he was killed had far more to do with the impact it would have on the reality of the networks involved in the coup attempt than some sort of personal vendetta.