Russia demands ‘concrete’ proof that it poisoned Navalny with dart frog toxin

Russia is demanding that European countries who accused Moscow of poisoning Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with a dart frog toxin provide concrete data to support their allegation, according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said on Saturday that analyses of samples from Navalny’s body had confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America and not found naturally in Russia. They said Moscow had the “means, motive and opportunity” to administer the poison to him. “All the accusations against Russia were of the ‘highly likely’ variety. There were no specific details. It was purely a proclamation to become the opening act of the Munich [security] conference and to overshadow the Epstein files,” Zakharova told a news briefing on Wednesday. “We demand they hand over concrete data on this issue.” The Kremlin flatly rejected the European accusations, while Yulia Navalnaya, the late politician’s widow, said the truth about her husband’s death had finally been disclosed. Navalnaya, who attended the Munich conference over the weekend, said she had been “certain from the first day” that her husband had been poisoned, “but now there is proof”. “[Vladimir] Putin killed Alexei with a chemical weapon,” she wrote on social media, describing the Russian leader as “a murderer” who “must be held accountable”. Second death anniversary The announcement of the findings coincided with the second anniversary of Navalny’s death in an Arctic penal colony while serving a 19-year sentence that many believed to be politically motivated. His death on February 16, 2024, at the age of 47 left the Russian opposition leaderless and divided, struggling to build an effective or united front without one of its most visible and charismatic figures. Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, and his mother-in-law, Alla Abrosimova, were among the mourners laying flowers on his grave on Monday. A mound of bouquets rose above the heavy drifts of snow that blanketed Moscow’s Borisovsky Cemetery. Addressing the crowd, Lyudmila Navalnaya restated her belief that her son was killed by the Russian authorities. “We knew that our son did not simply die in prison,” she said. “He was murdered.” Moscow has vehemently denied its involvement in Navalny’s death, saying that the politician had become unwell after going for a walk. When asked about the allegations on Monday, the presidential spokesman said that the Kremlin did “not accept such accusations.” “We consider them biased and unfounded. In fact, we resolutely reject them,” he said. Navalny was the target of an earlier poisoning in 2020, with a nerve agent in an attack he blamed on the Kremlin, which always denied involvement. His family and allies fought to have him flown to Germany for treatment and recovery. Five months later, he returned to Russia, where he was immediately arrested and imprisoned for the last three years of his life. Navalny’s closest allies, as well as other key members of Russia’s opposition, now continue their fight from exile. Many have been handed lengthy prison sentences in absentia in Russia and are unable to return home. Some have been designated “terrorists and extremists” by the authorities, a designation that was also applied to Navalny in January 2022. Yet Russia’s opposition has failed to form a united front and a clear plan of action against the Kremlin. Instead, rival groups have traded accusations that some see as efforts to discredit each other and vie for influence. In one small victory for opposition activists, Europe’s leading human rights body, PACE, announced in late January the creation of a new body – the Platform for Dialogue with Russian Democratic Forces – tasked with giving opposition Russians a voice and a formal platform to engage European lawmakers. It has been heralded as a victory for anti-war Russians, but also attracted criticism as the body was not elected democratically. Members of Navalny’s anti-corruption organisation are also absent from the group. In a statement to mark Navalny’s death anniversary, Russian members of PACE said that his death was “an inevitable link in a chain of systemic crimes by the Kremlin regime against its own citizens and the citizens of foreign states”. “Alexei Navalny gave his life for a free Russia,” the statement said. “We are obliged to ensure that his death was not in vain.”

Russia demands ‘concrete’ proof that it poisoned Navalny with dart frog toxin

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands claim Russia had the ‘means, motive and opportunity’ to kill its opposition leader

Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands claim Russia had the ‘means, motive and opportunity’ to kill its opposition leader