Russian opposition leader and anti-Putin politician Alexei Navalny was poisoned by epibatidine, a toxin found in dart frogs in South America, the governments of the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany and The Netherlands concluded, two years after his death.
Russian opposition leader and anti-Putin politician Alexei Navalny was poisoned by epibatidine, a toxin found in dart frogs in South America, the governments of the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany and The Netherlands concluded, two years after his death.
The government of Russia has claimed that Navalny died February 2024 of natural causes while in prison. The five countries disagree based on the reported symptoms Navalny experienced as well as analysis of samples from Navalny. The group says “Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him.”
“These latest findings once again underline the need to hold Russia accountable for its repeated violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention and, in this instance, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, the foreign ministers of the countries said in a joint statement. “Our Permanent Representatives to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have written today to the Director General to inform him of this Russian breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.”
Epibatidine is a poison secreted by the Anthony’s poison arrow frog (Epipedobates anthonyi), a species in the family Dendrobatidae that is endemic to Ecuador and Peru. The frog has a snout to vent length of just under an inch and has short hind legs. It has a dark red or brown dorsal surface with several light stripes along with a center longitudinal stripe. It is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN. It is also listed as Near Threatened in Peru.
