U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offers a thumbs up as he boards a aircraft whereas departing Bratislava Airport in Bratislava on February 15, 2025.
| Photograph Credit score: Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday (February 15, 2026) known as “troubling” a report by 5 European allies blaming Russia for killing late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny utilizing toxin from poison dart frogs, including that Washington had no cause to query it.
“We clearly are conscious of the report. It’s a troubling report. We’re conscious of that case of Mr. Navalny and positively..we don’t have any cause to query it. We’re not disputing. We’re going to do a combat with these nations over it. However it was their report, and they put that on the market,” Mr. Rubio, talking at a information convention in Bratislava throughout a go to.
In a joint assertion, Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands on Saturday (February 14, 2026) mentioned analyses of samples from Navalny’s physique “conclusively” confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a toxin present in poison dart frogs in South America and never discovered naturally in Russia.
The Russian authorities, which has repeatedly denied any duty for Navalny’s dying whereas he was held in an Arctic penal colony two years in the past, dismissed the newest allegations as “a Western propaganda hoax,” in line with Russia’s state information company TASS.
When requested why the USA didn’t be a part of the assertion, Mr. Rubio mentioned this was an endeavour by them.
“These nations got here to that conclusion. They coordinated that. We selected – Doesn’t imply we disagree with the end result. We simply, it wasn’t, our endeavour. Generally nations exit and do their factor with based mostly on the intelligence they’ve gathered.” Mr. Rubio mentioned.
“We’re not disputing or getting right into a combat with these nations over it. However it was their report, and so they put that out there,” he added.
Russian Opposition chief Navalny died in an Arctic jail colony in February 2024, after being convicted of extremism and different prices, all of which he denied.
Printed – February 15, 2026 08:36 pm IST