Epibatidine is the rare substance with which Russia poisoned the opposition politician Alexei Navalnyaccording to an accusation from the United Kingdom and other European allied countries released this Saturday, something denied by the Kremlin.
In a joint statement, the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands held the Russian government responsible for Navalny’s death on February 16, 2024 in a Siberian prison.
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“We are sure that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin“, they stated after analyzing samples of material found on his body.
“These analyzes have conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine,” they added.
Epibatidine is a toxin found exclusively in a species of amphibian called the Ecuadorian dart frog, characteristic of certain areas of Ecuador and Colombia.
According to the statement from European countries, this animal is not present in Russia naturally.
“Epibatidine is a natural neurotoxin isolated from the skin of the dart frog” and “it is 200 times more potent than morphine,” toxicology expert Jill Johnson explained to the BBC Russian Service.
“This powerful chemical compound acts on the nicotinic receptors of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system,” he continued.
Johnson said that because epibatidine overstimulates these nerve receptors, it can cause muscle spasms, paralysis, seizures, slow heart rate, respiratory failure and, ultimately, death.
“Breathing is blocked and anyone poisoned dies from asphyxiation,” Alastair Hay, emeritus professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds, told the British Press Association news agency.
“Epibatidine is extremely rare. It is found only in one species of wild frog, in a given geographic region, and in minimal quantities. Frogs produce it by absorbing alkaloids from their diet and accumulating it in their skin. If the frog’s diet changes, its epibatidine reserves are depleted,” Johnson explained.
The dart frog lives in some areas of Ecuador and Colombia. (Universal Images Group via Getty Images).
Animals from different habitats have had different levels of the toxin, while those raised in captivity have none.
For the toxicologist, “finding a wild frog in the right place, eating exactly the food necessary to produce the right alkaloids, is almost impossible.”
Among those that secrete this toxin into their skin are the brightly colored Ecuadorian tricolor frog and the Anthony’s poison dart frog.
Epibatidine has been investigated as an analgesic and for the relief of painful inflammatory lung conditions, such as asthma and pulmonary fibrosis.
However, it is not used clinically due to its toxicity.
Hay stated that the presence of the toxin in a person’s blood “suggests deliberate administration.”
“The toxicity of epibatidine may even be increased by coadministration of certain other drugs, and these combinations have been investigated,” Hay said.
Epibatidine can be detected using a combination of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.
Gas chromatography helps separate compounds of interest, while mass spectrometry breaks chemicals down into specific fragments to create a unique fingerprint of the substance, which can later be identified.
“This is an incredibly rare method of human poisoning. The only cases of epibatidine poisoning I know of were in the laboratory and were not fatal,” Johnson said.
The Russian government, which has repeatedly denied any responsibility for Navalny’s death, dismissed the latest allegations as “a Western propaganda hoax,” according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
Meanwhile, the Russian embassy in London declared: “You have to wonder what kind of person would believe this nonsense about a frog.”
Navalny was the most prominent opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin. (AFP via Getty Images).
In the joint statement, the European countries said that “given the toxicity of epibatidine and the symptoms reported, it is very likely that poisoning was the cause of his death.”
“Navalny died in prison, which means that Russia had the means, the motive and the opportunity to administer this poison to him,” they added.
Navalny, an anti-corruption activist and Russia’s most forceful opposition leader, died suddenly in prison at the age of 47.
In 2020, he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. He received treatment in Germany and was arrested at the airport upon his return to Russia.
Before this Saturday’s announcement, Navalny’s wife, Yulia, had argued on numerous occasions that her husband had been killed by poisoning while serving a sentence in an Arctic penal colony in 2024.
In September last year, Yulia Navalnaya stated that the analysis of her husband’s smuggled biological samples, carried out by laboratories in two countries, showed that her husband had been “murdered.”
At the time of his death, Navalny had been in prison for three years on trumped-up charges and had recently been transferred to the Arctic Circle penal colony.
According to Russian accounts, the 47-year-old took a brief walk around his Siberian penal colony, said he felt unwell, then collapsed and never regained consciousness.
Navalny’s family later confirmed that the political activist died that same day.
