The Kremlin’s alleged killing of Alexei Navalny using dart frog poison has prompted fears there will be similar attacks across Europe that could get out of hand and cause severe loss of life, officials have told The i Paper.
Moscow’s use of deadly toxins against enemies of the Kremlin has forced European allies to prepare for a potential spill out of poisons used by Russian agents in the West.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Navalny’s death showed that “the Cold War peace dividend that we had all believed in and hoped for has gone.”
The announcement at the Munich Security Conference that tests showed Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader, had been killed with poison derived from deadly toxic frogs from South America marked a significant hardening of European rhetoric.
“Only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin,” the UK, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands said in a joint statement as they publicly held Vladimir Putin responsible.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, the British Army’s former head of defences against chemical attacks, warned: “Russia still has an advanced chemical weapons programme. We are likely to see more of this because it’s so effective.”
He described Russia as “a terror state” and said it would use “anything in its disposal” against enemies.
Nato is now assessing chemical and biological weapons as part of its work against Moscow’s hybrid threat. The military alliance is working with chemical, biological, and nuclear experts across Europe to build resilience to a potential major exposure to deadly toxins, this paper has learned.
A senior Nato official said there was particular “concern” about “less sophisticated elements” of Russian intelligence handling deadly toxins, raising the potential for “unintended consequences”, including wide exposure to the public, stemming from assassination attempts.
Nato is supporting allies to strengthen the public’s preparedness to exposure of deadly chemicals which have the potential to send fatal toxins into airways and water systems if unsuccessfully contained. The UK’s Porton Down campus in Wiltshire is among a number of facilities where resilience to biological warfare is being developed.
In September 2017, Russia claimed it had destroyed all its chemical weapons. However, a flurry of accusations and evidence against the Kremlin since then have thrown those claims into doubt.
Russian authorities have long claimed Navalny died of natural causes, while being held in a maximum-security prison in the Russian Arctic in 2024. But patience with the Kremlin’s denials has run out.
Matthew Dunn, a former MI6 field officer said the “insidious” use of poisons is a way of spreading fear among Russia’s enemies, but added it is a tactic that “smacks of insecurity and spitefulness.”
He told The i Paper British security services will need to be on “high alert” to stop covert Russian assassins from entering the country with hidden vials of poison.
A poisonous history
In 2018 poison – Novichok – was used in the attempted assassination of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. The poison is believed to have been smuggled into the UK in a perfume bottle.
The Skripals survived, but British citizen Dawn Sturgess died after inadvertently coming into contact with the discarded perfume bottle. More than a decade earlier, former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko was murdered in London with radioactive polonium-210. A UK public inquiry showed that dangerous levels of radiation had been traced across London, and later concluded the killing was “probably approved” by the Russian state.
Could they be mass produced?
Samples taken from Navalny’s body showed the presence of a toxic substance, epibatidine, according to a multi-intelligence agency investigation.
“Epibatidine is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America. It is not found naturally in Russia,” the joint European statement said. “There is no innocent explanation for its presence in Navalny’s body.”
While toxins like epibatidine are not likely to be mass produced, experts said Russia has the capability to manufacture deadly chemicals in quantities far beyond those needed for targeted assassinations.
A sprawling chemical factory on the outskirts of Moscow, called The State Scientific Research Institute for Organic Chemistry and Technology, was placed under sanctions by the US and EU for its significant role in the development of Novichok and for a previous poisoning of Navalny in August 2020.
In response to Navalny’s suspected poisoning the UK government formally notified the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the body responsible for enforcing the Chemical Weapons Convention, about the Russian state’s use of a banned toxin.
In reacting to the findings around Navalny’s death, the Foreign Secretary said it was clear Russia did not destroy all its chemical weapons as claimed in 2017, and that there had been a “blatant breach” of chemical weapons laws.
De Bretton-Gordon said while it was a diplomatic move, a referral to the OPCW does carry weight, telling the world that “Russia is using chemical weapons” and “we are doing what we can do.”
Your next read
square EDUCATION ExclusiveSEND children face losing EHCPs from 2030 under reforms
square NEWSWhy BBC online move could spell disaster for Boom, Magic and Classic FM
square DEMOCRATIC PARTY AnalysisThe anti-Trump coalition is emerging – this is a dangerous moment
square WORLD ExplainedPutin’s 10-day ‘disappearance’ prompts flurry of rumours – here’s what we know
The body can conduct independent analysis and deploy fact-finding missions. Its previous findings confirmed the use of Novichok in the Skripal case, enhancing the UK’s diplomatic response to the assassination attempt. If fresh evidence related to Navalny or alleged use in Ukraine were formally submitted and verified, it could trigger additional sanctions, coordinated expulsions or even debates over Russia’s standing within international arms agreements.
A shift in tone
The joint statement in Munich is a clear show of combined European strength against Putin, and that the age of Russia’s plausible deniability is over.
The message will fall on deaf ears within the Kremlin, who will likely see this as nothing more than a diplomatic outcry. While the continent braces for Moscow’s reaction, Navalny’s widow finally has the proof pointing to her husband’s killer.
“Vladimir Putin is a murderer,” she posted on X. “He must be held accountable for all his crimes.”
Hence then, the article about new deadly russian poisons must put uk on high alert for attacks was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( New deadly Russian poisons ‘must put UK on high alert for attacks’ )
Also on site :
- California Dreamin’: NBC Kicks Off 2028 L.A. Olympics Marketing Campaign With Kate Hudson (Exclusive)
- Zelensky tells BBC Putin has started WW3 and must be stopped
- ‘People, scale, infectious optimism’: Here’s why India could be the new kid on the AI block