Overview
- Exiled physician Alexandr Polupan told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the frog-derived toxin offered a more controllable, “more reliable” killing method than Novichok.
- He said epibatidine could be mixed into food or drink and used without specialist chemists, making a covert dose in a penal colony feasible.
- Coverage cites a draft court document, reported by The Insider, describing a sudden decline after lunch with severe abdominal pain, vomiting and convulsions.
- Polupan said epibatidine is easier to detect than Novichok, adding he believes the perpetrators relied on preventing any samples from reaching independent laboratories.
- Reporting notes prior publications by Moscow chemists on epibatidine, which Polupan argues suggests study for potential security-service use.