Alexei Navalny 'poisoning': What is epibatidine, the toxin 5 European nations say Russia used to kill Putin critic

A group of European nations released a joint statement on Saturday, saying that the 2024 death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin, was due to poisoning, and that the poisoning was carried out by the Kremlin.

Also Read | Russia killed opposition leader Alexei Navalny using dart frog toxin, 5 European nations say

The statement, from the foreign ministries of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands, was released two days ahead of Navalny’s second death anniversary.

The countries said that epibatidine, a toxin found in the skin of dart frogs native to South America, was detected in samples and “highly likely resulted in his (Navalny's) death.”

“Only the Russian state had the means, motive, and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin to target Navalny during his imprisonment in a Russian penal colony in Siberia, and we hold it responsible for his death,” the UK Foreign Office added in a statement.

At the time of his death, Navalny, 47, was serving a 19-year jail term in a case widely believed to be politically motivated. Moscow has consistently denied any hand in his death, arguing that he died of “natural causes.”

What is epibatidine?

According to the United States' National Library of Medicine (NLM), epibatidine is a toxic alkaloid isolated from the skin of Epipedobates tricolor, a poison frog found in Ecuador and historically used by indigenous tribes on hunting darts. Although discovered in 1974, its chemical formula and structure were only fully established in 1992.

Epibatidine has high toxicity, and, therefore, its potential for therapeutic use is limited.

This alkaloid is widely considered a powerful painkiller, 100 to 200 times stronger than morphine and about 30 times stronger than nicotine.