Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died after being poisoned with a rare "dart frog toxin," the United Kingdom's Foreign Office said in a statement released Feb. 14.
The announcement comes two years after Navalny died in a Siberian penal colony. The UK and several other European countries including France, Sweden and Germany accused Russia of orchestrating the poisoning.
"Only the Russian government had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin against Alexei Navalny during his imprisonment in Russia," UK Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper said. She was speaking during an appearance at the Munich Security Conference, which runs through Feb. 15."Russia saw Navalny as a threat," Cooper said in Germany, where she met with Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya.
The Russian government has not sent a delegation to Munich for the annual security and defense forum. Russia's foreign ministry did not respond to a comment on the poisoning allegation.
The Foreign Office said lab tests of Navalny's body were "consistent" with a deadly toxin found in the skin of Ecuador dart frogs, named epibatidine. It said the samples found in his body "highly likely resulted in his death."Two years ago, Navalny's death deprived Russia of one of its most effective − and fearless − political rivals to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long silenced his critics. To Navalny's many followers and admirers, he was a charismatic talisman willing to stand up to Russia's leader.For years, Putin's foes have tended to die in mysterious ways including poisonings, by falling out of windows and even in a plane crash, such as happened to Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
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