French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is prepared to use biological weapons against his own people after claims emerged that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died of poisoning.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is prepared to use biological weapons against his own people after claims emerged that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died of poisoning.
On Saturday, scientists from five nations, the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands found that Navalny died from dart frog poison administered by the Russian state two years ago. It is pertinent to note that the US was not one of the intelligence agencies making the claim.
In light of the findings, Barrot took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to slam Putin. “Two years ago, Alexei Navalny died from poisoning by one of the deadliest nerve agents,” Barrot wrote in the post. “We now know that Vladimir Putin is prepared to use biological weapons against his own people to maintain his grip on power. France pays tribute to this leading opposition figure, killed for his fight for a free and democratic Russia,” he added.
The ripple effects of the report
The UK described the poisoning as barbaric and said that it would report Russia to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, as a flagrant violation by Russia of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). In the report, the intelligence agencies claimed that laboratory testing found that the deadly toxin in the skin of Ecuador dart frogs (epibatidine) was found in samples from Navalny’s body and probably resulted in his death.
“Only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin to target Navalny during his imprisonment in a Russian penal colony in Siberia, and we hold it responsible for his death,” the joint statement read.
“Epibatidine can be found naturally in dart frogs in the wild in South America. Dart frogs in captivity do not produce this toxin, and it is not found naturally in Russia. There is no innocent explanation for its presence in Navalny’s body,” it added.
Although it had been widely assumed that Navalny had been poisoned by the Russian state, the evidence of the specific poison in his body is a new development. While reacting to the news, Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalny, said that she was certain about it from the first day.
“I was certain from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof: Putin killed Alexei with [a] chemical weapon. I am grateful to the European states for the meticulous work they carried out over two years and for uncovering the truth. Vladimir Putin is a murderer. He must be held accountable for all his crimes,” she wrote in the post.
Russia hits back
Russia has hit back at claims from the United Kingdom and other allies, calling it a “disinformation campaign”. Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, told the TASS news agency that the allegations “are a disinformation campaign by the West”.
“There will be results of the analyses, there will be formulas of the substances, and there will be a commentary. Without this, all the talks and statements are an information campaign aimed at diverting attention from the pressing problems of the West,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Russian embassy in the UK has taken a similar stance on the matter. “This isn’t a quest for justice, but a mockery of the dead. Even after the death of a Russian citizen, London and European capitals cannot give him peace, which speaks volumes about the instigators of this campaign,” it said.
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