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The death of a Russian<\/a> whistleblower needs to be reopened following new evidence in the Navalny frog poison death, say friends piling pressure on British authorities.<\/p>\n Alexander Perepilichny<\/a>, a businessman who investigated organised crime and corruption in Russia<\/a>, died after collapsing on a job near his home in Weybridge, Surrey, in 2012.<\/p>\n Six years later, an inquest found that the 44-year-old died from natural causes, but his vomiting symptoms indicated he may have been poisoned.<\/p>\n At the time, police ruled out foul play, but traces of a chemical found in a rare poisonous plant called \u201cgelsemium elegans\u201d were later found in his stomach.<\/p>\n Finance corporation Hermitage Capital Management previously claimed that he could have been intentionally killed for helping it lift the veil on a multi-million-pound fraud scheme implicating Russian officials.<\/p>\n The coroner at the time blamed Surrey Police <\/a>for mistakes that led to a lack of evidence in the case.<\/p>\n Comparisons are now being drawn between this case and that of 47-year-old Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Saturday, the UK was one of several countries, including Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, and France, that accused Russia of killing Navalny in a colony in Siberia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Navalny had been handed a 19-year prison sentence on embezzlement charges that were believed to be fabricated. His death was announced by Russia<\/a> on February 16, 2024.<\/p>\n At the time of his death, Navalny\u2019s allies accused Russian authorities of murdering him for the political challenge he posed to the Kremlin.<\/p>\n In a joint statement released by the five countries, they referenced the traces of epibatidine found in Navalny’s body, a toxin found on South American dart frogs.<\/p>\n Tributes to the slain Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were left outside the Russian embassy in London after his death (PA Archive)<\/p>\n Bill Browder, who assisted Perepilichny in exposing a $230m (\u00a3142m) money-laundering scheme in Russia, highlighted the similarities between the two deaths.<\/p>\n Speaking to The Telegraph<\/a>, he said: \u201cWe were trying to determine what type of poison was used on Alexander Perepilichny in 2012, and with this new information on the Navalny poisoning<\/a>, it has many similarities.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s a shame that the law enforcement authorities in Surrey were so quick to conclude that it wasn’t a suspicious death and therefore did not preserve the evidence.<\/p>\n \u201cIn light of this new evidence in the Navalny case and all the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Alexander… I would hope that the UK would reopen the case that they so negligently closed for “lack of crime.\u201d<\/p>\n Navalny\u2019s widow, Yulia Navalnaya said that Putin \u2018must be held accountable\u2019 (REUTERS)<\/p>\n An inquest in 2018 found that Surrey Police<\/a> had lost or disregarded evidence, including the contents of Perepilichny\u2019s stomach, which may have resulted in a different conclusion.<\/p>\n Officers also did not check CCTV <\/a>from the area in which Perepilichny collapsed.<\/p>\n Epibatidine is only naturally found on the skin of the Ecuadorian dart frog, and if ingested, it results in a painful death by paralysis and respiratory arrest. It can also be produced synthetically.<\/p>\n Navalny\u2019s widow, Yulia Navalnaya<\/a>, said on Sunday night that Vladimir Putin<\/a> \u201cmust be held accountable\u201d.<\/p>\n She thanked the UK and its allies for proving that his death two years ago was likely to have been the result of the poison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(PA) The death of a Russian whistleblower needs to be reopened following new evidence in the Navalny frog…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7655],"tags":[225004,67654,225005,332,45603,2536,114553],"class_list":["post-767983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-russia","tag-alexander-perepilichny","tag-alexei-navalny","tag-lack-of-evidence","tag-russia","tag-russian-officials","tag-surrey","tag-surrey-police"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116079742868819962","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Tributes](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/daf2d73aa7461e3e2b12f32eb2ea826c.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Navalny\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/9a5dceb5dc07ad8e75b2d42c9ab83541.jpeg\"\/)
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