The Foreign Office has stated that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died due to poisoning with a toxin derived from dart frog poison. The declaration comes two years after Navalny’s death in a Siberian penal colony.

Following an analysis of material samples recovered from Navalny’s body, Britain and its allied nations have asserted that the Kremlin bears responsibility. The Foreign Office emphasized that the presence of epibatidine, the toxin identified in samples from Navalny, lacks any innocent explanation.

During remarks at the Munich Security Conference, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper declared, “Only the Russian government possessed the capability, reason, and access to deploy this deadly toxin against Alexei Navalny while he was incarcerated in Russia.”

Cooper met with Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, at the conference over the weekend. “Russia perceived Navalny as a danger,” Cooper stated at the gathering. She further commented, “In employing this specific type of poison, the Russian state showcased the abhorrent methods at its disposal and the profound apprehension it harbors towards political dissent.”

Sweden, France, the Netherlands, and Germany have joined the United Kingdom in attributing the poisoning to Russia. The Foreign Office confirmed that the UK has notified the Organisation on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons regarding Russia’s alleged violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Navalny, a prominent anti-corruption activist and Russia’s most forceful opposition figure, died unexpectedly in prison on February 16, 2024. He was 47 years old.

This incident follows a separate poisoning in 2020, when Navalny was affected by a Novichok nerve agent. He received medical treatment in Germany before being apprehended upon his return to Russia at the airport.