Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in prison after being poisoned with a deadly toxin found in Ecuadorian dart frogs, the U.K. and other allies claimed Saturday.
There is no possible other explanation other than a deliberate poisoning, European officials said, noting that the frogs are not found in Russia.
Russia’s prison service reported in February 2024 that Navalny died after having felt unwell following a walk around the high-security facility in a remote town above the Arctic Circle where he was serving a combined 30½-year jail sentence.
He was 47.
“The U.K., Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands are confident that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin,” the British foreign ministry said in a joint statement Saturday, citing “analyses of samples from Alexei Navalny.”
“Epibatidine is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America,” the statement added. “It is not naturally found in Russia.”
