Speaking to reporters in Bratislava during a visit to Slovakia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US "has no reason to doubt" the joint report released by the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.
The report was released after Ms. Yulia Navalnaya - wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny - said in September last year that laboratories in "at least 2 countries" had separately analyzed biological samples secretly taken out and all concluded that Alexei Navalny was poisoned.
According to a statement from the British government titled "Britain confirms Russia poisoned Navalny in prison with rare poison", tests revealed epibatidine - an extremely potent toxin found in the skin of Ecuadorian poisonous frogs - in biological samples from Navalny's body.
The statement said that this poison was "highly likely" the cause of death of the 47-year-old Russian opposition leader, who died in a prison in Siberia in 2024.
A joint report from the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands stated: "Considering the toxicity of epibatidine and the recorded symptoms, it is highly likely that the cause of death was poisoning." The document also stated that Navalny died during detention, meaning Russia "has means, motives and opportunities" to use the poison.
The statement also recalled the European investigation into the 2020 incident, when Navalny fell into a coma at a Berlin hospital in Germany after being attacked with Novichok - the same neurotoxin used in the failed assassination of former double agent Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018.
For her part, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova shared with the press that this is a "propaganda trick of the West", and declared that Russia will comment when full test results and chemical formulas are announced.
Epibatidine is an extremely toxic natural alkaloid, found in the skin of toxic Ecuadorian frogs, according to scientific data published on the National Institutes of Health page.
European officials believe that this toxin can be synthesized in laboratories. The British government's statement stated: Caged frogs do not produce epibatidine and this substance does not exist naturally in Russia, so there is "no harmless explanation" for its appearance in Navalny's body.
According to the National Institutes of Health, epibatidine is 100-200 times stronger than morphine. The effect of this toxin on humans is similar to Novichok: When it enters the blood, this toxin can cause convulsions, paralysis and ultimately lead to death.
Honorary Professor of Environmental Toxicology Alastair Hay at the University of Leeds (UK) said that this toxin paralyzes the respiratory system, causing victims to die from suffocation. The presence of epibatidine in human blood "shows that the introduction of toxins into the body is intentional".
If epibatidine was actually used to poison Navalny, that action would violate the 1972 Convention on Biological Weapons and Toxins and the 1993 Convention on Chemical Weapons.
