Foreign diplomats lay flowers at the grave of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at the Borisovo cemetery in Moscow. Photo / Hector Retamal, AFP
Foreign diplomats lay flowers at the grave of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at the Borisovo cemetery in Moscow. Photo / Hector Retamal, AFP
The Kremlin has said that it “strongly rejected” an assessment by five European countries that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died from poisoning two years ago, as his supporters marked the anniversary of his death in prison.
Navalny, a charismatic anti-corruption campaigner who rallied hundreds of thousands to the streetsin protest at the Russian leadership, was President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest domestic opponent for years.
He died in an Arctic prison colony in February 2024 while serving a 19-year sentence for “extremism”, a charge that he and his supporters say was punishment for his opposition work.
Britain, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands issued a joint statement on Saturday saying they believed he had been poisoned with epibatidine – a toxin found in poison dart frogs – and that the Russian state had the “means, motive and opportunity” to administer it.
“We naturally do not accept such accusations. We disagree with them. We consider them biased and baseless,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including AFP, during a daily briefing call.
One supporter told AFP that seeing the numbers turn out each year inspired hope.
“When I come to this place for the second time, hope suddenly appears,” 20-year-old Igor, who declined to give his surname, said.
Olga, a 27-year-old who came with yellow roses, said she wanted to “honour the memory of a man who died undeservedly, because of political repression”.
Russian authorities designated Navalny and his organisation “extremist” before his death, and anyone who mentions him or his exiled anti-corruption foundation are liable for prosecution.
Navalny, a Yale-educated lawyer, was the most widely known Russian opposition figure and galvanised thousands of young people to protest against Putin.
He had already survived a suspected poisoning with the Novichok nerve agent in 2020, being evacuated to Germany for months-long treatment and recovery.
He was arrested at a Moscow airport when he returned in January 2021.
Ecuadorian dart frog
Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila, told reporters she felt vindicated by the European statement and called for those responsible to be held accountable.
“This confirms what we knew from the very beginning. We knew that our son did not simply die in prison, he was murdered,” she said outside the cemetery where he was buried in Moscow.
People visit the grave of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at the Borisovo cemetery in Moscow. Photo / Hector Retamal, AFP
“I think it will take some time, but we will find out who did it. Of course, we want this to happen in our country, and we want justice to prevail,” she added.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnya, said on Saturday it was now “science-proven” that her husband had been murdered.
She had previously said in September that laboratory analysis of smuggled biological samples found that her husband was poisoned.
Epibatidine, found in the Ecuadorian dart frog, causes muscle paralysis and eventual asphyxiation.
Experts have said the toxin can also be produced synthetically, instead of extracting it directly from the frog itself.
The European statement did not say how it was administered or by whom.
Britain’s foreign office said the poison is not found naturally in Russia and that “only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin”.
Russia’s prison service said Navalny died after going for a walk and falling ill. They then spent days refusing to release his body to his relatives, triggering accusations of a cover-up.
Since Navalny’s death, Russia’s opposition has remained largely exiled and fragmented.
Navalnya vowed to take the mantle of Russia’s opposition after his death but has struggled to galvanise widespread support.
Inside Russia, Moscow has intensified a crackdown on anybody who had links with the late opposition leader.
In addition to targeting his allies and backers, photographers who covered his court hearings and lawyers who represented him at trial have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
