Scientists in five European countries confirmed that Alexey Navalny was killed with a rare neurotoxin. Russian officials are calling it ‘necro-propaganda.’
On February 14, 2026, The Insider reported that independent laboratories in five countries had identified the substance used to poison Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Scientists found epibatidine — a potent toxin derived from a South American frog — in biological samples taken from Navalny and smuggled abroad. Britain, Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands subsequently issued a joint statement confirming the findings and accusing Russia of breaching the Chemical Weapons Convention. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States did not dispute the European assessment and described it as “troubling.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the conclusions as deliberate disinformation. Meduza reviews reactions to the weekend’s revelations.
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Russia’s reaction: ‘Disinformation,’ ‘a political pageant,’ and ‘necro-propaganda’
Russia’s Foreign Ministry denounced the five European countries’ conclusions about Navalny’s poisoning. Speaking on February 14, spokesperson Maria Zakharova said:
At a moment when they should be presenting the results of their investigation into [the Nord Stream pipeline bombing], they’re bringing up Navalny. When formally asked to provide Navalny’s test results, they deflected with bombshell claims about the Skripals. […] Show us the test results. Show us the chemical formulas. Then we’ll comment. Without that, all this talk is just a planted story meant to distract from the West’s real problems.
The Russian embassy in London called the five countries’ statement about Navalny’s poisoning a “political pageant” staged on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The diplomatic mission said “there is no reason whatsoever to credit such ‘findings’ by Western ‘experts.’” “Yet what truly shocks is the method now favored by Western politicians: necro-propaganda. This is not a quest for justice but a mockery of the dead,” the embassy said on social media.
Russian network television ignored the five countries’ joint statement about Navalny’s poisoning in its Saturday evening newscasts, the independent outlet Agentstvo reported. Meanwhile, several Russian publications — including Kommersant, Forbes, and Lenta.ru — addressed the poisoning only after Maria Zakharova’s statement, which became the focus of their coverage.
Other reactions: The United States doesn’t ‘question’ the Europeans, while Britain sees the Russian authorities’ ‘overwhelming fear’ of the opposition
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized that the United States did not dispute the conclusions reached by European countries. He made the remarks at a press conference in Bratislava during his visit to Slovakia. “We obviously are aware of the report. It’s a troubling report. We’re aware of that case of Mr. Navalny and certainly … we don’t have any reason to question it,” Rubio added.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called Navalny’s poisoning “a cowardly act from a frightened leader.” “Russia has long acted as a terrorist state, relying on terrorist methods,” she noted.
“We never had any illusions about the nature of the Russian regime,” said German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul. “But it is clear that Russian authorities had the possibility, the motive, and the means to administer the poison to Navalny.”
“Russia saw Navalny as a threat,” said British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. “By using this form of poison, the Russian state demonstrated the despicable tools it has at its disposal and the overwhelming fear it has of political opposition.”
“Two years ago, Alexey Navalny died from poisoning caused by one of the deadliest nerve agents [novichok]. We now know that Vladimir Putin is prepared to use chemical weapons against his own people to maintain his grip on power,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot.
Leonid Volkov, director of political projects for the Anti-Corruption Foundation, also commented on the laboratories’ findings:
Every propagandist was trying to outdo the others, inventing “natural causes,” “blood clots,” and “heart attacks” off the top of their heads like they always do. They laughed right in our faces […] It was a long two-year road. Today, there is a sense that we’ve turned an important page and finished a chapter. Someday, when it’s possible, we’ll write in our memoirs about what it all took… We’re still infinitely far from victory; only a tiny step has been taken. But we took it.
What else is known about the poison?
Ismail Efendiev, an Azerbaijani physician specializing in toxicology and a candidate of medical sciences (a credential roughly equivalent to a Ph.D.), described the properties of epibatidine during an appearance on The Breakfast Show. Efendiev, who in 2020 publicly commented on the Novichok poisoning attempt against Navalny, said the lethal dose of epibatidine could have been microscopic.
“Obviously, such experiments have not been conducted on humans — or if they have, those results were never made public. But based on what we know from animal studies, we’re talking about hundredths or even thousandths of a gram. Put simply, a deadly dose might be so tiny you wouldn’t even see it,” the toxicologist said.
Efendiev noted that poisonings by epibatidine and Novichok show similar symptoms, but there’s a key difference: atropine, the cholinolytic agent that Omsk doctors quickly administered to Navalny in 2020 after he collapsed on a plane, would not work against epibatidine. Efendiev explained that the only option would be to treat the symptoms, as there is no specific antidote. However, epibatidine lingers in the body and breaks down slowly, which actually makes it easier to detect.
Efendiev stressed that there is no way to purchase — let alone synthesize — epibatidine at home. Only government labs tied to specific agencies or organizations have the means to produce it.