Five European Nations Say Navalny Was Poisoned; Rubio Says U.S. Won’t Dispute It

Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands jointly accused Russia on Saturday of poisoning the opposition leader Alexey Navalny in an Arctic prison colony, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that Washington has no reason to question the finding, according to Al Jazeera and CBS News.

The five governments said analyses of samples “conclusively” confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a toxin found in South American poison dart frogs, according to Al Jazeera, CBS News and ABC News; NBC News reported that forensic tests found it in Navalny’s system. Al Jazeera and ABC’s Australian service said it is not found naturally in Russia. NBC News quoted toxicologist Alastair Hay as saying the structure is known and the toxin can be synthesized, so it need not be harvested from frogs, though state-level facilities would be needed to produce it safely.

Their joint statement said poisoning was “highly likely the cause of his death,” and argued that Russia had the means, motive and opportunity because Navalny died in prison, according to Al Jazeera and CBS News. CBS reported that the leaders cited Russia’s “repeated disregard for international law” and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Navalny died in February 2024, aged 47, in an Arctic penal colony; Russian authorities said he died of natural causes, Al Jazeera, CBS and ABC reported.

Moscow rejected the claim. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia “strongly rejects” the allegations as “biased and unfounded,” ABC’s Australian service reported in a later account. ABC News quoted the Russian embassy in London as saying there is “no reason whatsoever to credit such ‘findings’.” NBC News reported that Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow would respond to test results and substance formulas.

Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, accused the Russian state of killing him, according to ABC and Al Jazeera.

Rubio, visiting Slovakia, said at a news conference on Sunday, “We don’t have any reason to question it,” according to Al Jazeera and MS NOW; NBC News also reported that he has no reason to question the findings and called them troubling. Al Jazeera, MS NOW and NBC News noted that the United States was not among the five nations behind the statement.

Navalny survived a nerve-agent poisoning in 2020, which he blamed on the Kremlin, according to Al Jazeera, CBS and NBC News. CBS and ABC reported that he was later sentenced to 19 years on extremism charges, which he called politically motivated, and died while serving that term; NBC News gave his combined sentence as 30.5 years.