Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (file photo)
Experts believe the deadly toxin that allegedly killed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny in February 2024 was likely created in a laboratory and not extracted from wild South American poison dart frogs, as multiple European countries have claimed. Five European countries said last week that tests confirmed Navalny was poisoned by pibatidine, a potent toxin found in the skin of poison dart frogs native to South America, and blamed the Russian government.While the frogs can be easily purchased in South American markets or exported legally with a license, scientists say it’s impractical to use real frogs to create deadly poisons. Ivan Lozano, director of the Tesoros Center in Colombia, explained that it would take a “huge number of frogs” to create a dose that would be lethal to humans, making it nearly impossible to collect enough frogs for this purpose.The toxicity of these frogs presents another challenge. University of Illinois researcher Devon Edmonds said frogs only become poisonous by eating wild insects. “In captivity, they are fed fruit flies, so they are not poisonous,” he explains, adding that even wild frogs lose their toxicity after a few months in captivity.Andrea Tran of the Jabato Center in Ecuador points out that it is much easier to obtain a synthetic version of the toxin from the laboratory. This is consistent with records showing that while more than 800 Antoni poison dart frogs have been legally exported from Ecuador over the past decade, their natural toxins are not suitable for such use.The Kremlin, through spokesman Dmitry Peskov, completely denied the poisoning accusations, calling them “prejudicial and baseless.” However, Russia and the Soviet Union have a history of developing and allegedly using various toxins against political opponents, from ricin to Novichok.Britain, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands have jointly said they believe Navalny was poisoned with pibatidine while serving time on “extremism” charges, charges he and his supporters insist are politically motivated.
