Países europeus dizem que Navalny foi envenenado (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: The Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin while being held in a penal colony two years ago, according to several European nations. In a joint statement, the governments of the UK, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden said they had analysed samples from Mr Navalny following his death and found traces of a toxin found in poisoned dart frogs from South America. And a Novichok attack in 2018 underlined the need to hold Russia accountable for its repeated violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention and, in this instance, the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention. Our permanent representatives to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have written today to the Director-General to inform him of this Russian breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention. We are further concerned that Russia did not destroy all of its chemical weapons. We and our partners will make use of all policy levers at our disposal to continue to hold Russia to account. We're joined now by our World Affairs correspondent, Joe Inwood. Joe, how have they worked this out?

[00:01:11] Speaker 2: So it seems that after the death of Alexei Navalny a couple of years ago, somehow they've got samples from his body. We don't know the details of this one actually, but I think presumably he was buried and they have taken samples, one assumes at that point, and they've been analysing them. And I think very few people would be surprised that he met an unnatural end. I don't think many people believe the Russian suggestion that he had died of natural causes of a heart condition. But the fact that they found this toxin that was called epibatidine, according to the government statement, and that is found only on the skin of the Ecuadorian dart frog. Now I'm not an expert on the Ecuadorian dart frog, but I think it's fair to say they're not generally found in Siberia. And so the conclusion the government have come to is that the only way that epibatidine could have made its way from the jungles of Ecuador and Peru as well, I'm told, but into Siberia and into the body of Alexei Navalny is if someone had put it there, and that the only people that could have put it there are the Russian government.

[00:02:06] Speaker 1: And it isn't the first time that Russia has been accused of using deadly toxins.

[00:02:10] Speaker 2: No, of course. As you just mentioned, Novichok on Mr Navalny in 2020, and the Salisbury poisoning as well. Russia has, I mean, they've always denied this, we should say that, but they've not denied it in a way that has convinced many people that they don't undertake this sort of operation using toxins, nerve agents, various, should we say, creative ways of killing their opponents is something that very, very widely Russia has been accused of. And that's why we've got this statement that you mentioned before from these five governments saying that they're breaching various international conventions.

[00:02:45] Speaker 1: The British Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has said that clearly Russia saw Navalny as a threat.

[00:02:50] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that goes without saying. I mean, Alexei Navalny, to remind viewers before he died, was the most high profile, the most prominent, and in the Kremlin's eyes, the most dangerous opponent that the Russian government faced. His anti-corruption foundation was very, very well regarded around the world by many of its supporters. But I think more than that, they had a habit of putting out these videos which embarrassed and infuriated the Kremlin, various revelations about government corruption, about the extravagance in which their leader, specifically President Putin, lived. I think they did, if I remember correctly, an investigation, an undercover kind of expose of his huge mansion that he'd had built. And all of this didn't... It was partly that he was a central figure around which opponents could coalesce, but also that they were so successful in making the Kremlin look foolish.

[00:03:46] Speaker 1: Joe, for the moment, thank you very much, Joe, in there with the latest following that statement from those European partners. There is much more on the circumstances of Alexei Navalny's death. If you'd like to read it, you'll find it on the BBC News website or our app.