Peskov rejects claims that Navalny was poisoned with a toxin

The Kremlin has rejected accusations by five European countries that Russia killed Alexei Navalny two years ago using a toxin from poisonous frogs. Moscow said the allegations were "baseless."

Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands announced in a joint statement that analysis of samples from Navalny's body had "conclusively" confirmed the presence of epibatidine. This is a toxin found in poisonous frogs in South America, which does not occur naturally in Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the allegations false, biased, and unfounded. "Naturally, we do not accept such accusations. We disagree with them and strongly reject them," he told reporters.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented on Sunday that these are disturbing findings that the US has no reason to question.

Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most prominent domestic critic, died in February 2024 at the age of 47 in an Arctic prison. This happened a month before the presidential election, which Putin won again. Russian authorities have previously rejected claims by Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalny, that the state killed him. According to them, he died of natural causes.

(reuters, max)