• [Dailystar Icon]
• News
• World News
• Russia

Jailed Putin critic Navalny poisoned with dart frog toxin administered by Kremlin'

The UK and allies believe that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by a chemical weapon while in a Siberian penal colony

[Alexei Navalny]

Alexei Navalny was poisoned by a chemical weapon(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died while in prison, was poisoned by a deadly toxin used by indigenous South American tribes, the UK and allies have claimed.

Found in Ecuadorian dart frogs, the neurotoxin is classed as a chemical weapon, and could have only been carried out on Vladimir Putins orders, they said.

Called epibatidine, it is not understood how the frog poison was allegedly administered to Navalny, who had been in a Siberian penal colony when he died, on February 16, 2024. It's understood that South American tribes use epibatidine in blow guns or darts while hunting. It is 200 times stronger than morphine.

[Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, his wife Yulia, opposition politician Lyubov Sobol and other demonstrators march in memory of murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov]

Alexei was a fierce opponent of the Russian despot(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Surrounded by foreign ministers of the UK, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny's widow, appeared at a press conference part of a security conference in Munich to announce the discovery.

Along with France, the four countries have been working together to determine how Navalny died, analysing material samples found on his body.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement in his death. The UK have concluded that there is no innocent explanation for the toxin being found on Navalny's body.

[This video grab taken from footage released on September 17, 2025 by Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, shows Yulia Navalnaya talking about the cause of death of her husband.]

His widow Yulia revealed the findings in Germany(Image: @NAVALNYRU/youtube/AFP via Getty)

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "Since Yulia Navalnaya announced the loss of her husband here in Munich two years ago, the UK has pursued the truth of Alexei Navalny's death with fierce determination.

"Only the Russian Government had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin against Alexei Navalny during his imprisonment in Russia.

"Today, beside his widow, the UK is shining a light on the Kremlin's barbaric plot to silence his voice."

[An Ecuador Poison Frog, Ameerega bilinguis, in the Napo River Basin in Amazonian Ecuador. (Photo by: Jon G. Fuller/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)]

It's now been determined that Alexei died by a frog toxin so lethal it's classed as a chemical weapon

She added that "Russia saw Navalny as a threat".

"By using this form of poison the Russian state demonstrated the despicable tools it has at its disposal and the overwhelming fear it has of political opposition," she continued.

Navalny had been held in a the Russian prison since January 2021. At the time of death, a statement was released saying that he had felt "unwell", after going for a walk and "collapsed" immediately.

[Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who was arrested during March 26 anti-corruption rally,]

Alexei had been in a Siberian prison when he died in 2024(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

A spokesman for the Yamalo-Nenets district prison service said: "On February 16, 2024, in correctional colony No. 3, convicted Navalny A, after the walk felt unwell, almost immediately losing consciousness. Medical workers from the institution arrived immediately and an emergency medical team was called.

Shortly after his death, another Kremlin critic Vladimir Osechkin claimed Navalny had died by a single punch to the heart.

He said: 'It is an old method of the KGB's special forces divisions. They trained their operatives to kill a man with one punch in the heart, in the centre of the body. It was a hallmark of the KGB.

For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.

[Dailystar Icon]

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Choose Daily Star as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value.