Alexei Navalny has recently garnered significant attention due to a series of urgent news developments surrounding his situation in Russia. Notably, a recent report from the AP News details his conviction on charges of extremism, which has resulted in a lengthy 19-year prison sentence. This drastic legal action against a prominent Kremlin critic has raised alarms both domestically and internationally, prompting heightened interest and concern about his treatment.
Additionally, new allegations have emerged regarding his potential assassination that involve the use of a dart frog toxin, as reported by an unspecified source. This shocking claim adds another layer of intrigue and urgency to the ongoing situation around Navalny, making it a focal point of discussion among those following Russian politics and human rights issues.
Furthermore, a joint statement from five European nations accusing the Kremlin of poisoning Navalny has intensified scrutiny on Russia’s actions. These developments highlight significant geopolitical tensions, leading to increased search interest as people seek to understand the implications of these events on both Navalny’s fate and broader international relations.
The combination of these critical news signals—Navalny’s severe sentencing, allegations of attempted murder, and international condemnation—has converged to spark a surge of searches related to his name, reflecting the gravity and global relevance of his plight.
Watch the Moment
Internet Reacts
S
It’s wild to me that they’d go through so much effort when cyanide is way more common. It’s not like they care who knows what they did.
Y
> The “barbaric” act – using a neurotoxin that is classed as a chemical weapon – could only have been carried out by Vladimir Putin’s government, they said on Saturday. That’s why. They want the opposite of plausible deniability. It’s Putin explicitly saying “If you cross me I will kill you, and there is nothing you can do about it.”
S
Honestly one of the most “barbaric” acts in this is the fact that this toxin paralyzes you so you can’t move, breath, scream or do literally anything but just sit there completely aware of everything that is going on until you die.
L
So he sat there and suffocated?! Omg I can barely hold my breath for more than 10 seconds and you’re saying he was stuck there completely conscious as he felt the discomfort and pain of it?
N
It’s horrifying to think of, knowing you’re going to die but not being able to do anything about it, not even talk to loved ones.
L
I’m more so thinking about the horror of trying to get the relief of breathing but just not being able to and feeling the pain of it while not being able to move.
D
I was once having an issue that caused my lungs to bleed and build up fluid, and on my way to the ER, I’m begging my friend driving to start running lights (cautiously), because I can’t catch my breath. I get there, have to literally cough blood all over the floor to get the security guard to understand I do not have time to give all this info (or the breath). As they put oxygen on me, I remember how it didn’t help at all. My oxygen intake keeps getting lower. Now I’m in a room with 9 people, 4 doctors. I know enough to know this is an extremely bad sign in an ER. They try something else. Also can’t get air. They tell me there’s one more device to try before I am going to have to be intubated. All the while my brain is panicking from lack of oxygen as I try to figure out if I’m actually dying right now. But when they put the next device on (I have no clue the name), I can remember slowly feeling relief and my breath coming back. And almost immediately passed out asleep somehow. Sorry for the long ass story. Just saying yes, it is truly, truly miserable to be losing your ability to breathe and being fully aware. Your brain freaks the fuck out. It knows something is very wrong.
B
Our second child had severe asthma attacks from the age of 2. Part of our education by her pediatrician was to do some running in place to get our heart and lungs going faster and then try to breathe only through a straw. Extreme oxygen deprivation is frightening as hell.
H
That scenario was the last feeling I remember about age 9 during a severe asthma attack. After 48 hours of struggling and telling my parents this was not a cold, or mild asthma attack (not responding to some lame ass medication)they took me to the hospital where I was observed for a day with a crash cart next to me. I swore to myself that I would never be in that position again. I am not sure I’ve forgiven my parents but I definitely never trusted them again advocates of my healthcare But yeah, I was fucking tachy for hours and just couldn’t breathe. I tried so hard and just felt like I was dieing slowly
L
And for the poor guy this thread is about he couldn’t even move, and he was in enemy territory where what was happening to him was what they wanted. So his situation was hopeless.
N
Oh god, that sounds horrible as well…
R
There is one thing, not going back to the country. I support navalny all the way but his idea that returning to russia would spur some big movement and show Putin he wasn’t afraid wasn’t the right call. I know people will disagree with me on that but at the end of the day a man who was the leader of an important resistance movement in russia is gone, as is a father and a husband. For what?
P
> There is one thing, not going back to the country. There are multiple instances of Russia conducting assassinations on foreign soil
R
Sure, but there’s a difference between walking into a lion’s den and a lion catching you despite your precautions
R
I always wondered why he would martyr himself instead of lead the opposition from somewhere else, while alive. It was a sad end.
S
I agree with you. I thought it was incredibly brave and idealistic of him, but absolutely prone to failure. And I was like, but we NEED you.
T
Because they don’t and they don’t have to. The goal is to send a message, they don’t need to care who knows because they hold all the power.
S
No they do care who knows. They always use a poison that makes it obvious exactly who did it and why, but still without making it provable. They want you to know it was them.
B
Yup. Cyanide *might* be suicide or something pedestrian. But poison dart frog? Ya, it’s obvious who sourced that. Yet with a poisoning they can still claim ignorance. The point is that everyone knows what happened. They know that we know. We know that they know we know. Yet they feign ignorance and nothing can be done. THAT’S the real point. That’s the power move.
S
When they used novichok and polonium 210 against Russian dissidents living in the UK, they used those because *nobody else on earth* could have sourced them. They made sure they did not need to claim credit for it
S
I get what you’re saying but that’s not entirely true. Polonium 210 is readily available in generally licensed anti static devices that anyone can buy. Novichok however is another story and definitely not readily accessible.
S
*microcuries* of Po210 are available for this purpose. Actually dangerous amounts of it are not. The government is not going to hand it to anyone without knowing where it’s going And not only that, Russia was (possibly still is) the world’s primary exporter of the stuff including to the US
S
That’s also not totally correct. There are small anti static devices typically in the range of 250-500 microcuries for things like laboratory balances, but 5-20 mCi Po-210 ionizing devices are common and very easily accessible as well. While Russia is the primary exporter, it’s incredibly easy to get in the United States. An [internal dose assessment](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17899149/#:~:text=The%20daily%20urinary%20excretions%20after,different%20assumptions%20about%20blood%20absorption.) of Litvinenko determined an intake in the range of 700 microcuries-35 mCi which resulted in fatal organ doses up to 800 rem. While it would require extraction and careful handling, this quantity is absolutely available to anyone without a specific NRC license.
W
r/foundMarieCurie
A
Get it, girl. You know your shit
A
Although their detailed knowledge of how to obtain deadly substances and poison someone is slightly concerning…
R
Radiochemist or *really* into true crime. Call it 🪙
O
Huh, weird that It’s the same thing we’re seeing that has been happening with the Epstein files
G
Same with all the people that accidentally fall from windows. Accident or suicide is a perfectly reasonable explanation but everyone know that they were thrown out.
N
The entire Cold War in a nutshell really.
C
He was already in prison, who else would’ve poisoned him, but the guards?
S
This is why I get aggravated when for any given topic people complain “It’s a distraction from the Epstein files”. I feel like all of this, the grand sweeping landscape, is a demonstration that there are *some people* who can get away with anything and most people can’t. The Epstein files don’t *need* a distraction because they’re a test of the waters to make sure certain people are socially untouchable before they unveil new, even more heinous atrocities after anyone with the power to oppose them has been eliminated or cowed. The people who are *actually* in charge WANT it in the public eye because those people are very clearly implicated and their opponents are being removed. If anything everything else is a distraction, because most people sigh, say, “Yeah but what am I supposed to do?” then hope if they keep their head down it’ll pass.
A
You’re way overthinking the Epstein files. People i them absolutely don’t want them released
S
I can think of at least one person who pretends to give a shit because there’s zero chance he faces consequences. And he’s kind of the most important one.
I
What’s the point of using exotic poisons if not to send a message?
S
Is it impossible for a russian to jfk that mf?
K
I read that as JFK, the president, and it still means the same thing.
B
I assumed that’s what he meant too. Edit: my bad, it was Italian.
V
Still poison dart frogs are only poisonous in the wild – you have to go way out of your way to get that toxin.
T
And getting ecuadorian dart frog toxin in siberia is pure flex at that point.
R
This is the country that, when they catch a double agent, they shove them, bound by electrical wire, alive into a furnace. That they lean on cruelty should absolutely surprise no-one.
D
It does not send as strong of a message.
P
What is the message? They had him in custody and could have killed him with a wrench if they wanted to.
A
They want everyone to know it was them, that it took effort. Even when their targets tumble out of hotel windows, it’s from floors where hotel windows don’t typically open. They want people to know it was them. They want people to know that they will get away with it. They want people to worry that they might be next.
P
He was in their prison. It would be obvious.
C
eh, somebody gets shanked in prison, maybe it’s because they refused to give up their jello cup or tried to get at some booty that belonged to someone else, or for the clout, who can say? Ecuadorian tree frog poison isn’t just obvious, it’s overt.
S
Either that or they thought something this obscure, and that’s lethal in such low doses, wouldn’t be detected if/when Navalny’s wife manages to get a post-mortem done. Stuff like Prigozhin’s plane exploding or using a Russian nerve agent to kill dissidents in the UK were clearly about sending a message but I think the motive here is less clear. It could be, as you suggest, that they wanted to make sure it was clearly an action requiring state resources. It could equally be that Putin didn’t want to risk martyring him or losing face by admitting that he was a legitimate political threat. Hell they could also just have used it because it’s a horrible way to die and they’re malevolent cunts. Russian politics and clandestine operations are so convoluted, and often so stupid, that it’s rarely worth speculating as to what outcome they were hoping for.
C
We would have known it was them if he passed from cyanide, too.
C
Maybe that’s the point, common poisons are understandable and in a way easier to validate. For a lot of people/nations who are unsure or more likely to trust Kremlin’s ~~narratives~~ spins, story about some ultra-rare poison comes off as too convoluted to be believable. Putin himself said some time after Navalny’s poisoning, that “if we really wanted to do it, we’d do it easily”. The ridiculousness of it might play into his hands more than brutal or obvious methods.
D
Putin’s weapon of choice.
Additional Sources:
AP News – Kremlin critic Navalny convicted of extremism and sentenced to 19 years in prison
NPR – 5 European nations say Alexei Navalny was poisoned and blame the Kremlin
