Five European states have publicly accused the Russian government of poisoning and killing opposition leader Alexey Navalny with a rare and lethal toxin derived from South American dart frogs, marking a dramatic escalation in international condemnation of Moscow's treatment of its most prominent Kremlin critic, reported Al Jazeera.
In a joint statement issued on Saturday, timed to coincide with the Munich Security Conference, the foreign ministries of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said laboratory analysis of samples taken from Navalny's body "conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine", a toxin naturally found in poison dart frogs and otherwise absent from Russia.
The governments said their findings leave no "innocent explanation" for the chemical's presence.
"The UK, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands are confident that Alexey Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin," the statement said, asserting that Moscow had the "means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison".
Russian authorities have vehemently denied the allegations, dismissing them as Western propaganda.
Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, said she would comment once the test results are publicly disclosed, a step that has not yet occurred. -- ANI
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