The Kremlin rejected the European declaration regarding the death of Putin critic Alexei Navalny. “We do not accept such accusations, we do not agree with them, and we find them biased and unfounded” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskow said on Monday. “And we decisively reject them”.

Prior to this, Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands issued a joint statement at the Munich Security Conference, concluding that the toxin epibatidin had been detected in tissue samples from Navalny’s body. Epibatidin is a highly toxic substance found in South‑American poison‑dart frogs. German Foreign Minister Johannes Waldephul referred to the finding as a “state‑murder”.

Navalny died in February 2024 while incarcerated in a Russian penal colony.