U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday (15 February) called it “troubling” a report by five European allies blaming Russia for killing late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny using a toxin from poison dart frogs.
Speaking at a news conference in Bratislava, Rubio said, “We obviously are aware of the report. It's a troubling report. We're aware of the case of Mr. Navalny and certainly… we don't have any reason to question it. We're not disputing it, and we're not going to fight with these countries over it. But it was their report, and they put that out there.”
The report, released on Saturday (14 February), comes from Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands. The five countries said they are convinced that Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin in a Russian penal colony two years ago.
The governments issued a joint statement in London, saying analyses of Navalny’s samples conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a powerful toxin found in South American poison dart frogs and not naturally occurring in Russia.
The statement said the findings support the conclusion that Navalny’s death was caused by deliberate poisoning.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday that only Russia had “the opportunity, the motive, the means” to poison Navalny while he was in prison.
“UK scientists have worked with our European partners to pursue the truth about how Alexei Navalny died,” Cooper said. “They have found and confirmed that there was a lethal toxin in his body when he died.”
She added that the Russian government had “tried to silence its opponents” and said the UK was determined “that the truth be told”.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot went further, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin was “responsible” for Navalny’s death.
“Today, exactly two years after his death, we are providing evidence … that he was poisoned,” Barrot said. He added that analyses conducted in specialised laboratories showed Navalny had been administered a toxin that “very likely led to his death”.
The Russian government, which has repeatedly denied any responsibility for Navalny's death, dismissed the latest allegations as "a Western propaganda hoax," according to the Russian state's TASS news agency.
"When the test results are available and the formulas for the substances are disclosed, we will comment accordingly," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
Russian opposition leader Navalny died in an Arctic prison colony in February 2024, after being convicted of extremism and other charges, all of which he denied.
His death was announced minutes before the opening of the Munich Security Conference in 2024. In response, the conference made a rare schedule adjustment to allow his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, to address the conference and she called for Putin to be held accountable.
"I was certain from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof ... I am grateful to the European states for the meticulous work they carried out over two years and for uncovering the truth," she said on social media.
The Russian embassy spokesperson said the European allies' move was "not a quest for justice but a mockery of the dead."
"Even after the death of the Russian citizen, London and the European capitals cannot allow him to rest in peace - a fact that speaks volumes about those who instigated this campaign," the spokesperson added.
Saturday's statement from the European allies, almost exactly two years after Navalny's death, said Moscow had the means, motive and opportunity to administer the poison as Navalny died in prison.
His death was followed by memorial gatherings and protests across Europe, with demonstrators in cities including London, Berlin, Vilnius and Rome condemning the Kremlin and demanding accountability.
The joint statement added that the latest findings underlined the need for Russia to be held accountable for "its repeated violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention and, in this instance, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention."
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