What We Know About the Frog Toxin That Killed Navalny

Investigators in five European countries say Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's death was caused by a toxin found in frogs like the Anthony's poison arrow frog and the Phantasmal poison frog—species normally found in the wild in South America, not around Siberian prison colonies.

• Epibatidine. The BBC reports that toxicologists say epibatidine, an extremely rare neurotoxin, is estimated to be about 200 times stronger than morphine, acts on nicotinic receptors in the nervous system, and can trigger paralysis, seizures, respiratory failure, and death by suffocation.

• "Deliberate administration." Alastair Hay, professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds, says the fact that the toxin was found in Navalny's blood "suggests deliberate administration."
• It was probably made in a lab. The toxin is only found in wild frogs and experts believe Navalny's poisoners probably made it in a lab instead of chasing frogs around the rainforest. "The structure is known and it's possible to synthesize it chemically, so you wouldn't have to go to Ecuador looking for brightly colored frogs, wash them down, and get the toxin off their skin," Hay tells NBC News. He says it is "an incredibly rare method of human poisoning. The only other cases of epibatidine poisoning I know of were laboratory-based and non-fatal."

• Russia had "means, motive, and opportunity." The foreign ministries of the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands said Saturday that tests show Navalny was killed by the toxin. They said only Russia had the "means, motive, and opportunity." Russia maintains Navalny died of natural causes; his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has long alleged he was killed. She said Saturday that Vladimir Putin is a murderer who "must be held accountable," the AP reports.
• Toxin isn't used clinically. While the drug has been studied as a potential painkiller, its toxicity has kept it out of clinical use. Russia maintains Navalny died of natural causes; his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has long alleged he was killed.
• Treaty violations. "If epibatidine, a toxin, was indeed used to poison Alexei Navalny, this is in violation of the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)," Hay says, per the Guardian. "The Soviet Union was a co-sponsor of the BTWC. Russia is a signatory of both the BTWC and CWC. If Russia used epibatidine to poison Mr. Navalny it has violated two treaties it has sworn to uphold."