This week marked two years since the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Navalny died in the Kharp penal colony, located beyond the Northern Ural Mountains in Russia, after being arrested and imprisoned in 2021. Around the anniversary of his death, five European countries—Britain, Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands—issued an official statement linking the circumstances of his death to poisoning and assigning responsibility for his murder in prison on the Russian government. According to the statement, only the Russian authorities had the means, access, and motives to cause his death.
This statement was based on independent laboratory tests that identified traces of a lethal toxin in biological samples taken from Navalny’s body and smuggled to Europe. The poison, identified as epibatidine, is derived from the skin of certain South American toads (which live in Ecuador and Peru and are not naturally found in Russia) and affects the human nervous system. It should be noted that epibatidine is synthesized at Russia’s State Scientific Research Institute for Organic Chemistry and Technology (GosNIIOKhT), the same institute that also develops other poisons, including Novichok, which was used in an attempt to poison Navalny in 2020.
This statement carries political and symbolic implications. First, it was delivered at the Munich Security Conference and constitutes a public indictment of Russia not only for the murder of a regime opponent, but also for the use of chemical agents against its own citizens. Second, it continues the European criticism of Russia about conduct in the war in Ukraine. Since the outbreak of the war in 2022, increasing evidence has pointed to frequent Russian use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces. While not lethal for now, they have been used to cause soldiers to abandon their positions and reveal themselves to Russian army soldiers. Countries such as Britain and the Netherlands have repeatedly warned of the expansion of use of chemical weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine in recent years.
It should be noted that Russia is party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) under UN auspices. As such, it is legally obligated to comply with the CWC’s provisions, including the prohibition on developing, producing, acquiring, stockpiling, retaining, or transferring chemical weapons; the requirement to destroy existing stockpiles or convert them to peaceful purposes; and the prohibition on using chemical weapons, including riot control agents, as a method of warfare.
Thus, the statement regarding Navalny’s murder does not only indicate another blatant violation of the CWC, but it also points to a process of regularization in using prohibited chemicals against political opponents and on the battlefield in Ukraine. The normalization and prevalence of this trend may pose an international challenge in the coming years.
This week marked two years since the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Navalny died in the Kharp penal colony, located beyond the Northern Ural Mountains in Russia, after being arrested and imprisoned in 2021. Around the anniversary of his death, five European countries—Britain, Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands—issued an official statement linking the circumstances of his death to poisoning and assigning responsibility for his murder in prison on the Russian government. According to the statement, only the Russian authorities had the means, access, and motives to cause his death.
This statement was based on independent laboratory tests that identified traces of a lethal toxin in biological samples taken from Navalny’s body and smuggled to Europe. The poison, identified as epibatidine, is derived from the skin of certain South American toads (which live in Ecuador and Peru and are not naturally found in Russia) and affects the human nervous system. It should be noted that epibatidine is synthesized at Russia’s State Scientific Research Institute for Organic Chemistry and Technology (GosNIIOKhT), the same institute that also develops other poisons, including Novichok, which was used in an attempt to poison Navalny in 2020.
This statement carries political and symbolic implications. First, it was delivered at the Munich Security Conference and constitutes a public indictment of Russia not only for the murder of a regime opponent, but also for the use of chemical agents against its own citizens. Second, it continues the European criticism of Russia about conduct in the war in Ukraine. Since the outbreak of the war in 2022, increasing evidence has pointed to frequent Russian use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces. While not lethal for now, they have been used to cause soldiers to abandon their positions and reveal themselves to Russian army soldiers. Countries such as Britain and the Netherlands have repeatedly warned of the expansion of use of chemical weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine in recent years.
It should be noted that Russia is party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) under UN auspices. As such, it is legally obligated to comply with the CWC’s provisions, including the prohibition on developing, producing, acquiring, stockpiling, retaining, or transferring chemical weapons; the requirement to destroy existing stockpiles or convert them to peaceful purposes; and the prohibition on using chemical weapons, including riot control agents, as a method of warfare.
Thus, the statement regarding Navalny’s murder does not only indicate another blatant violation of the CWC, but it also points to a process of regularization in using prohibited chemicals against political opponents and on the battlefield in Ukraine. The normalization and prevalence of this trend may pose an international challenge in the coming years.