{"id":2759,"date":"2026-02-14T23:03:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T23:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=2759"},"modified":"2026-02-14T23:03:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T23:03:40","slug":"5-european-countries-say-russia-poisoned-putin-critic-navalny-in-prison-with-rare-toxin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=2759","title":{"rendered":"5 European countries say Russia \u2018poisoned\u2019 Putin critic Navalny in prison with \u2018rare toxin\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Five European countries \u2014 including Britain, France and Germany \u2014 accused Russia of \u201cpoisoning\u201d opposition leader Alexei Navalny in prison in 2024 using a \u201crare toxin\u201d, on Saturday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK, Sweden, France, Germany and The Netherlands are confident that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin,\u201d the countries said in a joint statement, following \u201canalyses of samples\u201d from his body.<\/p>\n

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The staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin died <\/a>in an Arctic prison in February 2024, while serving a 19-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n

The epibatidine toxin found in the skin of dart frogs native to South America was found in samples and \u201chighly likely resulted in his death\u201d, the European states said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin to target Navalny during his imprisonment in a Russian penal colony in Siberia, and we hold it responsible for his death,\u201d the UK foreign office added in a statement.<\/p>\n

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Navalny\u2019s widow, Yulia Navalnya, said it was now \u201cscience-proven\u201d that the Kremlin opponent had been murdered.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago I came on stage here and said that it was Vladimir Putin who killed my husband,\u201d Navalnaya said on the sidelines of the conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was of course certain that it was a murder \u2026 but back then it was just words. But today these words have become science-proven facts,\u201d Navalnaya added.<\/p>\n

Navalnaya last September said that laboratory analysis of smuggled biological samples found he was killed by poisoning.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, beside his widow, the UK is shining a light on the Kremlin\u2019s barbaric plot to silence his voice,\u201d UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who met Navalnaya while attending the Munich conference, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The countries said they had reported Russia to the world\u2019s chemical weapons watchdog \u2014 the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons \u2014 over the finding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are further concerned that Russia did not destroy all of its chemical weapons,\u201d the countries said, accusing Moscow of breaching the Chemical Weapons Convention.<\/p>\n

Navalny was previously poisoned <\/a>with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in 2020 while campaigning in Siberia and was flown to Germany on an emergency evacuation flight, where he spent months recovering.<\/p>\n

The charismatic anti-corruption campaigner had rallied hundreds of thousands across Russia in anti-Kremlin protests as he exposed the alleged ill-gotten gains of Putin\u2019s inner circle.<\/p>\n