Russia’s Alexey Navalny killed by dart frog poison, European nations allege

Five European countries say findings ‘conclusively’ confirm the deadly toxin in the Russian opposition leader’s body as Moscow calls it Western propaganda.Published On 14 Feb 2026Five European countries – the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands – have accused Russia of poisoning and killing opposition leader Alexey Navalny in 2024 based on lab results from a sample taken from his body.The five governments said in a statement on Saturday that tissue samples “conclusively” confirmed the lethal toxin epibatidine. The poison is found in wild dart frogs from South America.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Alexey Navalny’s widow says lab results show her husband was poisonedlist 2 of 4Global system of human rights in ‘peril’, warns HRW in its annual reportlist 3 of 4‘Nothing but lies’: New Navalny memoir foretells collapse of Putin’s regimelist 4 of 4Russia hands jail sentences to three Navalny lawyersend of list“The UK, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands are confident that Alexey Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin,” the statement issued during the Munich Security Conference said.Russia had “the means, motive, and opportunity to administer this poison”, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office added in a statement.Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told state-run RIA Novosti news agency she’ll comment once the test results are publicly presented – something she noted has not yet been done.The five countries said they’re reporting Russia to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention. There was no immediate comment from the organisation.Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died in an Arctic penal colony on February 16, 2024, while serving a 19-year sentence he called politically motivated.Epibatidine is found naturally in dart frogs and can also be manufactured in a lab, something European scientists suspect was the case in the alleged poisoning of Navalny.The poison works by causing shortness of breath, convulsions, seizures and a slowed heart rate and can kill on contact.The five countries said Russia needs to be held accountable for its “repeated violations” of the convention.