Russia rejected European accusations that Navalny was poisoned in prison: “They are partial and unfounded”

“We, naturally, we do not accept such accusations. We do not agree with them. We consider them partial and unfounded. And, of course, we firmly reject them,” he said. Dmitri Peskovpresidential spokesperson, in his daily telephone press conference.

Peskov added that the Kremlin has a “very negative” opinion of the joint statement published on Saturday by those five European countries and which was reproduced in a video by the opponent’s widow, Yulia Naválnaya, within the framework of the Munich Security Conference.

According to the international investigation carried out on samples taken from Navalny just after he died in a Russian Arctic prison, the politician died poisoned by a lethal toxin (epibatidin), present in poisonous dart frogs that live in South America.

Russia has always claimed that Navalny died of natural causes in prison in February 2024, but, as the joint statement from the five countries adds, given the epibatidine toxicity and the reported symptoms it is very likely that poisoning was the cause of his death.

Meanwhile, Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila, today demanded a complete clarification of her son’s death, placing flowers on his grave in the Borisovo Moscow cemetery, on the second anniversary of his death.

“The instigators are known all over the world, but we want to know everyone who participated in this,” the woman said, quoted by the opposition television channel Dozhd.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, also remembered the Russian opponent through a message on his account on

Two years ago, the world learned of the death of Alexeï Navalny, whose memory I salute.

I then expressed my conviction that his death said everything about the weakness of the Kremlin and the fear of any opponent. It is now clear that it was premeditated.

The truth…

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) February 16, 2026

Navalnaya directly accused the Kremlin on Saturday of killing her husband with “a chemical weapon”, as she already tried to do with the Novichok substance during Navalny’s trip to Siberia in 2020.

In fact, these European countries accuse the Kremlin of violating the Chemical Weapons Convention, and announced that they have already demanded explanations in a letter to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

“Only the Russian Government had the means, the motive and the opportunity to use this lethal toxin against Alexei Navalny during his imprisonment in Russia. Today, together with his widow, the United Kingdom sheds light on the Kremlin’s barbaric plot to silence his voice,” said Yvette Cooper, British Foreign Minister, on Saturday.

Navalnaya reported the poisoning of her husband in September 2025, although at that time the foreign laboratories involved did not publish the definitive results.

The family, the opposition, independent doctors and Western chancelleries never believed the official version that Navalny died suddenly of natural causes, due to an arrhythmia, in the IK-3 penitentiary in the Arctic town of Jarp.

Russian President Vladimir Putin then described Navalny’s death as “sad event”but the opposition’s allies precisely accuse the head of the Kremlin of facilitating his death by blocking said exchange.