Rubio Backs European Report on Navalny Poisoning as "Troubling"

Speaking about his visit to Slovakia, Rubio acknowledged the findings cited by European nations. "Sometimes countries go out and do their thing based on the intelligence they've gathered. We are obviously aware of the report. It's a troubling report."

He added that the United States would not dispute those conclusions. "We don't have any reason to question it, or we're not disputing or getting into a fight with these countries over it, but it was their report, and they put that out there," Rubio said.

Rubio's remarks came after five European countries, the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, issued a joint statement asserting that Navalny was killed in prison using a rare toxin, according to CNN and Al Jazeera.

The statement said laboratory analysis of samples taken from Navalny's body "conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine," a lethal substance associated with poison dart frogs native to South America. The governments said the chemical does not occur naturally in Russia and leaves no "innocent explanation" for its presence.

The five nations further stated that Moscow "had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison" while Navalny was incarcerated in a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle.

Russian authorities rejected the allegations. Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia's Foreign Ministry, said she would comment once the test results are publicly disclosed.

Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, died on February 16, 2024, in an Arctic penal colony while serving a 19-year sentence he described as politically motivated. European governments say their findings challenge Russia's earlier claim that he died of natural causes.

At the Munich Security Conference, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper met Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, saying the new evidence casts light on "the Kremlin's barbaric plot to silence his voice."

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot wrote on X that the alleged poisoning underscored that Russia was prepared to use prohibited methods against its own citizens.

The European governments said they would report Russia to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a potential breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention, a step that could trigger formal international scrutiny.

Navalny's death in 2024 sparked global outrage. The renewed accusations, emerging alongside the Munich conference, threaten to further strain relations between Russia and Western capitals.

- ANI