Rubio says US does not dispute Navalny poisoning assessment by Europeans

BUDAPEST, Feb 15 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday called “troubling” a report by five European allies blaming Russia for killing late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny using toxin from poison dart frogs, adding that Washington had no reason to question it.

“We obviously are aware of the report. It’s a troubling report. We’re aware of that case of Mr. Navalny and certainly… we don’t have any reason to question it,” Rubio told reporters at a news conference in Brastislava during a visit to Slovakia.

In a joint statement, Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands on Saturday said analyses of samples from Navalny’s body “conclusively” confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America and not found naturally in Russia.

The Russian government, which has repeatedly denied any responsibility for Navalny’s death while he was held in an Arctic penal colony two years ago, dismissed the latest allegations as “a Western propaganda hoax,” according to Russia’s state news agency TASS.

When asked why the United States did not join the statement, Rubio said this was an endeavour by them.

“Those countries came to that conclusion. They coordinated that. We chose – Doesn’t mean we disagree with the outcome. We just, it wasn’t, our endeavour. Sometimes countries go out and do their thing with based on the intelligence they’ve gathered.” Rubio said.

“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,” he added.

Russian opposition leader Navalny died in an Arctic prison colony in February 2024, after being convicted of extremism and other charges, all of which he denied.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Jan Lopatka; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Susan Fenton)