Russia files protest with OPCW, rejects opposition figure poisoning allegations

Russia has submitted a formal note to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), categorically rejecting Western allegations that opposition figure Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a biotoxin.

Russia’s permanent representative to the OPCW Vladimir Tarabrin, dismissed the accusations as “absurd insinuations,” Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

He stated that the Russian delegation had formally requested the OPCW Technical Secretariat to circulate the note among all States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

“We have transmitted the relevant note to the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW with a request that it be distributed to all States Parties to the Convention,” Tarabrin said. “We categorically reject the absurd insinuations directed at us. At the same time, we reaffirm that the Russian Federation remains prepared for a substantive, expert-level dialogue grounded in verifiable facts.”

Tarabrin further argued that toxins, including epibatidine, fall outside the scope of the Chemical Weapons Convention. He maintained that such substances are regulated under a separate international framework — the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention — and therefore should not be subject to deliberation within the OPCW.

On February 14, several European governments — including Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, and France — issued a joint statement asserting that Navalny had been poisoned with epibatidine, a highly toxic compound derived from the skin of an Ecuadorian poison dart frog. The signatories accused Russia of breaching its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The Kremlin has firmly denied all allegations.

By Vafa Guliyeva