Vladimir Putin's Disposal of Influential Critics

"I was certain from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof: Putin killed Alexei with [a] chemical weapon."

"I am grateful to the European states for the meticulous work they carried out over two years and for uncovering the truth."

"Vladimir Putin is a murderer. He must be held accountable for all his crimes."

"It's difficult for me to say that it's good news because my husband was killed. And of course, I knew that he was killed. He spent his last years in very torturing conditions." 

Yulia Navalnaya 

 

"[The five nations were] confident that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin [identified through analysis of samples that confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a toxicant of poison dart frogs from South America]."

"Given the toxicity of epibatidine and reported symptoms, poisoning was highly likely the cause of his death. Navalny died while held in prison, meaning Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him."

Joint statement: United Kingdom, Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Germany

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny speaks to the media in front of security officers standing guard at the Foundation for Fighting Corruption office in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2019.  Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP 

Five European nations issued a statement affirming that biological samples taken from Russian political activist, and the staunchest opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin, prove on laboratory analysis that the anti-corruption crusader was the victim of a poison attack which was analyzed as a deadly venom used to murder him. Russia, they stated baldly had the "means, motive and opportunity" whereby to administer the deadly dose in an Arctic prison two years earlier. 

 

Despite an official Russian statement to the effect that Navalny had died from 'natural causes', this discovery of his death having been caused by a substance not found naturally in Russia refutes that claim. Maria Zakharova, spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry responded that the statement's intent was to "distract attention from the pressing problems of the West". However, once details of the tests involved in the investigation are released, Russian officials planned to comment further.

 

As Vladimir Putin's nemesis, the anti-corruption crusader and champion of  democracy was  arrested immediately he returned to Russia in 2021 from Germany where he had recuperated after being close to death, with the assistance of German medical facilities, from an earlier attempt to kill him by a different poison application, identified in a German laboratory as a banned nerve agent of a type developed in Russia. Then-Chancellor Angela Merkel had personally announced the German findings.

 

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny looks at a camera while speaking from a prison via a video link, provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, during a court session in January 2022. He died in prison on Feb. 16, 2024. Photo by Denis Kaminev /AP

 

Yulia Navalnaya had been in attendance at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday when the statement of revelation was released by the five members of NATO. Following the release of the statement, Navalnaya stated that many people felt it would be 'impossible' to prove her husband's death resulted from poisoning, despite which, she now had 'certainty'. "I think it is right to say I am satisfied with the investigation", she said. 

 

Following her husband's death, his family struggled against Russian authorities in their bid to reclaim his body. Authorities kept providing conflicting reasons as they continued to put off surrendering his body to the family. Which Navalny's family and supporters interpreted as the Russian government being anxious to destroy any evidence that might be uncovered that would explain the death of a man who had been seen only days earlier via video link to a court hearing, who appeared in good health. 

 

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny appears in a Russian court via video link from the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, in Russia's far northern Yamal-Nenets region, Feb. 15, 2024, a day before prison authorities said he had died after going for a walk at the prison. SOTAVISION/Reuters