Extract from ABC News
Alexei Navalny died in a Russian prison in February 2024. (Reuters: Shamil Zhumatov)
In short:
Five European nations have said jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by the Russian state.
Mr Navalny died in prison in 2024.
His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said there was now proof of what she had believed "from the first day".
Five European nations say Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin, and are blaming the Russian state for the attack.
The foreign ministries of the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said that analysis of samples from Mr Navalny, who died two years ago, "have conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine."
It is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America.
The joint statement, released by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said that "only the Russian state had the combined means, motive and disregard for international law" to carry out the attack.
The countries said they were reporting Russia to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Mr Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe, died in the Arctic penal colony in February 2024.
He was serving a 19-year sentence that he believed to be politically motivated.
Alexei Navalny's wife Yulia Navalnaya previously said tests showed her husband was killed by poisoning. (AP Photo: Ivan Sekretarev)
Mr Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said last year that two independent labs had found that her husband was poisoned shortly before his death.
Ms Navalnaya has repeatedly blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for Mr Navalny's death, something Russian officials have vehemently denied.
Following the release of the statement, Ms Navalnaya said on social media that she had been "certain from the first day" that her husband had been poisoned, "but now there is proof".
Russian authorities said that the politician became ill after a walk and died from natural causes.
AP
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