London: Five major European nations have confirmed that Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died in a prison cell in the Arctic region nearly two years ago, was poisoned by a poisonous frog. Russia denies the accusation, calling it a smear campaign.
According to Thai News Agency, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands issued a joint statement saying that Russia claims Navalny died of natural causes on February 16, 2024, at the age of 47, after being transferred to an Arctic prison since December 2023. However, analysis of samples from his body confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a poison found in poison dart frogs of a species found in South America, not naturally in Russia. This underscores that Russia must face repeated charges for violating chemical weapons conventions.
British authorities stated that the poisoning demonstrated a shocking pattern of behavior, as Britain had previously launched a public investigation into the death of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, who was poisoned with Novichok, a nerve agent, while in Britain in 2017. Last year, the investigation concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the killing. When asked how the British government obtained samples from Navalny's body or where they were examined, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told reporters that a team of British scientists was working with Europe to uncover the truth about Navalny's death.
Meanwhile, Russia's state news agency TASS reported that the Russian government rejected these latest accusations as Western propaganda aimed at diverting attention from the issues facing the West. Russia will comment on the matter only after the results of the investigation are revealed. The Russian embassy in the UK stated that the actions of its European allies are not aimed at seeking justice but are an insult to the dead.