A secretive Russian chemical analysis institute related to the Novichok nerve agent program stands accused of creating the uncommon frog toxin Epibatidine, implicated within the demise of opposition chief Alexei Navalny.
British allies conclude that the Russian state bears accountability for Navalny’s demise, based mostly on evaluation of samples from his physique. Specialists at Porton Down confirmed the presence of Epibatidine, a potent neurotoxin derived from South American poison dart frogs.
Navalny’s Demise and Toxin Proof
Alexei Navalny, aged 47, died in a Siberian penal colony in 2024 after lengthy accusing President Vladimir Putin of corruption. Russian officers vehemently deny involvement, dismissing accusations as Western propaganda.
Officers state no harmless rationalization exists for Epibatidine on Navalny’s physique. The UK beforehand attributed the 2018 Salisbury Novichok assault on Sergei Skripal and his daughter to Russia, the place the agent additionally fatally poisoned Daybreak Sturgess through a contaminated fragrance bottle.
Novichok featured in a previous 2020 try on Navalny’s life as nicely.
GosNIIOKhT’s Involvement
The State Analysis Institute of Natural Chemistry and Know-how (GosNIIOKhT) in Shikhany, recognized for creating Novichok brokers, printed analysis on Epibatidine over a decade in the past. In 2013, institute employees detailed a preparative methodology for the analgesic compound.
By 2015, they launched papers on chromatographic detection of Epibatidine traces in blood plasma and synthesis of its structural analogs.
Vil Mirzayanov, a 90-year-old exiled former GosNIIOKhT chemist who revealed the Novichok program, affirms Russian specialists’ functionality: “They synthesised very complicated compounds there, and this poison, I seemed on the method, it’s not sophisticated. It may be simply synthesised. I feel it may well get into the physique in varied methods: by means of meals, water, by means of the pores and skin.”
Investigative journalist Sergey Kanev stories that lab head Dr. Alexander Kutkin not too long ago hosted a gathering of Russia’s high poisoning specialists. The institute faces EU and US sanctions stemming from the Salisbury incident.
Toxin’s Deadly Results
British toxicology skilled Jill Johnson calls Epibatidine use an “extremely uncommon means of poisoning an individual.” She explains: “It’s 200 occasions stronger than morphine… With a correctly chosen dosage, it may well trigger muscle twitching, paralysis, convulsions, a slowdown in coronary heart price, respiratory failure, and finally — demise.”
Household and Authorities Responses
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, declares: “Scientists from 5 European nations have established: my husband Alexei Navalny was poisoned with epibatidine, one of the lethal poisons on earth. I used to be positive that my husband was poisoned, from the primary day, however now there may be proof: Putin killed Alexei with chemical weapons.”
Overseas Secretary Yvette Cooper hints at new sanctions: “We proceed to take a look at co-ordinated motion, together with growing sanctions on the Russian regime. As you recognize, we have now been pursuing this as a part of our response to the brutal invasion of Ukraine… It’s by appearing alongside our European allies, alongside allies internationally, that we do preserve that stress on the Russian regime.”
Russia’s Overseas Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responds: “When the take a look at outcomes can be found and the formulation for the substances are disclosed, we are going to remark accordingly.” She labels prior claims “merely propaganda geared toward diverting consideration from urgent Western points.”
The Russian embassy in London ridicules the allegations: “We’ve turn into accustomed to the feeblemindedness of Western fabricators; who would you need to be to consider this nonsense a few frog?”
