The Kremlin on Monday categorically rejected accusations by five European countries that the Russian state killed opposition figure Alexei Navalny two years ago using a toxin.
Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, died on 16 February 2024 in a penal colony around 1,900 kilometres north-east of Moscow. He was 47.
Moscow has said his death was due to natural causes. It occurred one month before Putin was re-elected to a fifth term in office.
On Saturday, the governments of United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden and Netherlands said analyses of samples taken from Navalny’s body had “definitively confirmed” the presence of epibatidine, a toxin found in poisonous frogs native to South America and not naturally occurring in Russia.
“Navalny died while imprisoned, meaning Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison,” the five countries said in a joint statement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the allegations.
“Of course, we do not accept such accusations. We disagree with them. We consider them biased and unfounded, and we categorically reject them,” Peskov told reporters.
Novichok
Earlier, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow would provide comment if and when the countries making the claims publish and analyse the results of their examinations.
Until then, the state news agency TASS quoted her as saying the allegations were “simply propaganda aimed at diverting attention from pressing Western issues”.
The British government declined on Saturday to respond to a Reuters request for details on how the samples from Navalny’s body were obtained or where they were analysed.
The joint European statement referred to the 2018 poisoning in Salisbury, England, of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, involving the nerve agent Novichok, suggesting Moscow has used lethal poisons against its opponents.
Russia denies involvement in the Salisbury incident. It also rejects British allegations that Moscow killed former dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 by lacing his tea with radioactive polonium-210.
Calls for transparent investigation
A group of 15 countries, mostly European but also including Australia, New Zealand and Canada, issued a further statement on Monday renewing calls for Russia to conduct a transparent investigation into Navalny’s death.
The statement, published on the website of the German foreign ministry, said Russian human rights defenders continue Navalny’s legacy and called on Moscow to release “all political prisoners”.
The allegations concerning the frog-derived toxin were raised at the Munich Security Conference ahead of the second anniversary of Navalny’s death.
Yulia Navalnaya, who has maintained from the outset that her husband was murdered by the Russian state, said on Monday that the findings provided the necessary evidence to support her claim.