The Kremlin on Monday dismissed the accusations from five European countries that Russia was responsible for the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
In a joint statement over the weekend, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden and Netherlands said laboratory tests on samples from Navalny's body conclusively found epibatidine, a toxin associated with poison dart frogs native to South America and not naturally found in Russia. Navalny died in February 2024 in an Arctic penal colony at the age of 47.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow "strongly rejects" the allegations. "We do not accept such accusations. We consider them biased and unfounded," he told reporters.
Russian authorities have repeatedly denied any involvement in Navalny's death, which came a month before President Vladimir Putin secured re-election in a vote widely criticised in the West. Officials maintain that Navalny died of natural causes and have outlawed his political movement as extremist...