LONDON: Britain will consider “increasing sanctions” against Russia following findings from five European states that opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed by dart-frog toxin in a Russian prison, UK foreign minister Yvette Cooper said Sunday.
“We continue to look at coordinated action, including increasing sanctions on the Russian regime,” Cooper told the BBC from the Munich Security Conference, where the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden announced findings that the Russian state was a prime suspect for poisoning Navalny two years ago.
Navalny, a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin, died in a Russian prison in mysterious conditions on February 16, 2024, while serving a 19-year sentence.
The five European countries on Saturday said that a deadly toxin known as epibatidine, found in Ecuadorian dart frogs, was found on laboratory analyzes of samples from his body.
Cooper told Sky News that the toxin can also be produced synthetically.
“We do know that the Russian regime has had possession of this particular chemical,” the British foreign minister said.
“Russia claimed that Navalny died of natural causes. But given the toxicity of epibatidine and reported symptoms, poisoning was highly likely the cause of his death,” the European countries said in a joint statement Saturday.
Britain’s foreign office said separately that “only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin.” It added: “We hold it (Russia) responsible for his death.”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer hailed Navalny’s “courage in the face of tyranny” in a social media post, slamming “Putin’s murderous intent.”
Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman and Moscow’s embassy in London dismissed the Western report.
The Kremlin has never given a full explanation for Navalny’s death, only saying he fell ill and died suddenly after taking a walk in his prison colony.
Putin said in 2024 that Navalny had “passed away.” The opposition leader died shortly before a presidential election in Russia.
On Saturday, Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnya, said it was now “science-proven” that the Kremlin opponent had been murdered, two years after his death was announced during the same annual conference in Germany.
Navalnaya last September said that laboratory analysis of smuggled biological samples found that her husband was killed by poisoning.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot paid “tribute” to Navalny after the findings.
“We now know that Vladimir Putin is prepared to use biological weapons against his own people to remain in power,” Barrot said in a post on X.
UK eyes Russia sanctions after Navalny poisoning findings
https://arab.news/5q2fe
UK eyes Russia sanctions after Navalny poisoning findings
- ‘We continue to look at coordinated action, including increasing sanctions on the Russian regime’
- Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed by dart-frog toxin in a Russian prison
US lawmaker Fine criticized by rights advocates, Democrats after anti-Muslim remarks
- Fine’s past comments include calling for the mass expulsion of all Muslims from the US, labeling of Muslims as “terrorists” and the mocking of the starvation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza, among others
WASHINGTON: Rights advocates and multiple Democrats on Tuesday condemned anti-Muslim comments by Republican US Representative Randy Fine who said on Sunday that “the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Fine, whose comments against Muslims have often sparked outrage, has dismissed the criticism and since doubled down on his remarks on social media. The Council on American-Islamic Relations designated the Republican US lawmaker from Florida as an anti-Muslim extremist last year.
“If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” Fine said on X on Sunday in a post that had over 40 million views as of Tuesday afternoon.
Some high-profile Democrats including California Governor Gavin Newsom called for him to resign while House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Fine an “Islamophobic, disgusting and unrepentant bigot.”
Jeffries also called for Republicans — who hold a majority in both chambers of Congress — to hold Fine accountable.
“To ignore this is to accept and normalize it,” Democratic US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. Fine’s past comments include calling for the mass expulsion of all Muslims from the US, labeling of Muslims as “terrorists” and the mocking of the starvation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza, among others. Rights advocates have noted a rise in Islamophobia in the US in recent years due to a range of factors including hard-line immigration policies and white-supremacist rhetoric, as well as the fallout of Israel’s war in Gaza on American society.
