GosNIIOKhT Chemical Institute in Shikhany published research papers on Epibatidine (Picture: east2west news)
A poison research institute linked to the Novichok nerve agent is believed to be behind the rare frog toxin that killed Vladimir Putin’s ‘number one enemy’ Alexei Navalny.
Britain and its allies said the Russian state was behind the opposition leader’s death following analysis of material samples found on his body.
Scientists from Porton Down identified Epibatidine – a powerful neurotoxin found in South American poison dart frogs – in samples linked to Navalny.
Now, attention has turned to the secretive Russian lab GosNIIOKhT that appears to have been working on obtaining the poison for over a decade.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny shows a heart symbol while standing in a defendants’ cage during a hearing in the Moscow City Court (Picture: AP)
Mr Navalny died at a Siberian penal colony in 2024 aged 47, after accusing the president of corruption.
The Russian authorities have continued to strenuously deny any involvement in his death and called the claims a ‘Western propaganda hoax’.
But the Foreign Office said there is no innocent explanation for the toxin Epibatidine being found on Mr Navalny’s body.
The UK government has previously laid the blame at Russia’s door for the assassination attempt on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury in March 2018, using the Novichok nerve agent.
Now it turns out the toxin that took out Navalny could have originated from the same lab as Novichok.
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The State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, called GosNIIOKhT, is widely described as the creator of the Novichok family of nerve agents.
However, as far back as 2013, GosNIIOKhT employees published a scientific paper describing a ‘preparative method for obtaining the analgesic epibatidine.’
Two years later, the poison experts published details of the ‘chromatographic determination of micro quantities of epibatidine and its biomarker in blood plasma.’
They also released another scientific paper, proposing a ‘synthesis of structural analogues of epibatidine.’
A former GosNIIOKhT chemist who exposed the top secret Novichok programme, said Russian specialists would have been fully capable of producing the frog toxin.
Anthony’s poison arrow dart frog, Epipedobates anthonyi, around the Rio Saladillo, Argentina (Picture: Getty Images)
Vil Mirzayanov, 90, who lives in exile, said: ‘They synthesised very complex compounds there, and this poison, I looked at the formula, it’s not complicated. It can be easily synthesised. I think it can get into the body in various ways: through food, water, through the skin.’
The head of the lab complex, Dr Alexander Kutkin, recently held a birthday party, inviting top figures in Russia’s network of poisoning experts, according to Russian investigative journalist Sergey Kanev.
The GosNIIOKhT institute was placed under sanctions by the EU and United States after it was linked to the 2018 Salisbury poisonings.
The nerve agent was brought from Russia to the UK in a fake Nina Ricci perfume bottle and killed Dawn Sturgess, who unknowingly sprayed herself with it before collapsing in her flat in Amesbury.
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Novichok was also employed in an attempt to poison Mr Navalny in 2020.
British toxicology expert Jill Johnson described the use of epibatidine as an ‘incredibly rare way of poisoning a person.’
She said: ‘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.’
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said: ‘Scientists from five European countries have established: my husband Alexei Navalny was poisoned with epibatidine, one of the most deadly poisons on earth.
‘I was sure that my husband was poisoned, from the first day, but now there is evidence: Putin killed Alexei with chemical weapons.’
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper suggested that new sanctions could be imposed on Russia following their conclusions on Navalny’s death.
Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (Picture: AP)
Asked on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme what the consequences of the accusation would be, Yvette Cooper said: ‘We continue to look at co-ordinated action, including increasing sanctions on the Russian regime.
‘As you know, we have been pursuing this as part of our response to the brutal invasion of Ukraine, where we are also coming up to the fourth anniversary of that invasion as well.
‘We believe that it is the partnerships that we build abroad that make us stronger at home. It is by acting alongside our European allies, alongside allies across the world, that we do maintain that pressure on the Russian regime.’
Responding to the statement on Mr Navalny’s death, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: ‘When the test results are available and the formulas for the substances are disclosed, we will comment accordingly.’
Until then, ‘all such assertions are merely propaganda aimed at diverting attention from pressing Western issues.’
The Russian embassy in London said: ‘We’ve become accustomed to the feeblemindedness of Western fabricators; who would you have to be to believe this nonsense about a frog?’
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