PUTIN has long been accused of using poison to silence his enemies – amid claims a secret laboratory was behind the toxin linked to Alexei Navalny’s death.
One of Putin’s most prominent critics, Navalny died in 2024 after suddenly falling gravely ill while in prison.
Vladimir Putin stands accused of poisoning opponent Alexei NavalnyCredit: AP
Navalny – one of Putin’s most prominent critics – died in prison in 2024Credit: AFP
Scrutiny is now focused on a Russian facility – thought to be where the poison was producedCredit: East2West
Russian authorities said he collapsed after feeling unwell, but Western leaders have questioned the circumstances.
Shortly before collapsing, he had been seen drinking tea in an airport cafe.
Over the years, suspected Kremlin-linked poisonings have left opponents facing slow, agonising deaths.
At least eight high-profile critics of Putin and his regime are believed to have fallen mysteriously ill in suspected poison attacks.
Mark Galeotti, senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, told Foreign Policy: “One of poison’s great virtues for the politically-minded murderer is their capacity to combine easy deniability and vicious theatricality.
“Even while the murderer denies any role, perhaps with a sly wink, the victim dies a horrific and often lengthy death. A message in a poison bottle.”
In some cases, victims can spend weeks in hospital fighting for their lives.
Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sunday Morning, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Only the Russian regime had the motive, the means and the opportunity to administer this lethal poison while he was in prison in Russia.
“They wanted to silence him because he was a critic of their regime, and that’s why we have exposed this barbaric Kremlin plot to do so and made sure that we have done so with evidence as well.”
Navalny’s mysterious illness echoed the 2018 poisoning of former MI6 double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.
The pair were left critically ill after the nerve agent Novichok was smeared on the door handle of his home.
The attack also poisoned police officer Nick Bailey and local residents Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess.
Sturgess, a mother of three, later died from exposure to the toxin.
John Sipher, who spent 28 years working with the CIA, said: “The Kremlin has a long, ugly history of intimidating and killing those who they see as a threat to the state.
“Journalists, opposition figures, vocal Russians abroad, and others always have to remain aware that the Kremlin doesn’t see them as free citizens.”
Perhaps the most infamous suspected poisoning linked to the Russian state was that of former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko.
Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury in 2018
Dawn Sturgess died after exposure to the nerve agentCredit: PA
Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium-210 in 2006Credit: Getty
A haunting photograph of him lying gravely ill in a London hospital became symbolic of the alleged reach of the Kremlin.
Litvinenko is believed to have been given a fatal dose of radioactive polonium-210 in 2006.
He endured a slow, three-week decline from radiation sickness before his death.
In a final statement, he said: “You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life.
“May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to beloved Russia and its people.”
The Kremlin has consistently denied any involvement in a campaign of poisonings or assassinations.
New scrutiny has focused on GosNIIOKhT – the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology – a facility widely described as the birthplace of the Novichok nerve agents.
Vil Mirzayanov, a former scientist at the institute who exposed the Novichok programme before going into exile, said Russia would have been capable of producing the rare toxin reportedly identified in samples linked to Navalny.
“They synthesised very complex compounds there, and this poison, I looked at the formula, it’s not complicated,” he said.
“It can be easily synthesised. I think it can get into the body in various ways: through food, water, through the skin.”
Scientists at Porton Down said they had now “conclusively” identified epibatidine – a powerful neurotoxin found in South American poison dart frogs – in related samples.
British toxicology expert Jill Johnson described the substance as an “incredibly rare way of poisoning a person.”
“It is 200 times stronger than morphine… With a properly selected dosage, it can cause muscle twitching, paralysis, convulsions, a slowdown in heart rate, respiratory failure, and ultimately – death.”
Britain, backed by France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, accused Moscow of breaching the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Russia dismissed the allegations as a “western propaganda hoax”.
Navalny was reportedly taken ill on a flight back to MoscowCredit: AFP
Russia has dismissed allegations as Western propagandaCredit: AFP
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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