Russian opposition figure Navalny killed by toxin found in poison dart frogs, Europeans say

Russian opposition figure and outspoken Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, who died two years ago, was killed while in prison by a lethal toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America, five European countries have said in a statement Saturday.

Analyses of samples taken from Navalny’s body have “conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine,” the statement said. The substance is not found naturally in Russia, it added.

The five countries – UK, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands – said Moscow “had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison” to Navalny while he was held in a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle.

Only “the Russian state had the combined means, motive and disregard for international law” to contribute to Navalny’s death, they added.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied being responsible for Navalny’s death and on Saturday Russian news agency TASS quoted the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as dismissing the frog poison claim as “propaganda.”