Cameron to call out Putin ally at G20 over Navalny’s death

Lord Cameron is expected to call out Vladimir Putin ally Sergei Lavrov over the death of Alexei Navalny at this week’s G20 foreign ministers meeting, even if they do not meet face-to-face.

The Foreign Secretary is not expected to hold in-person talks with his Russian counterpart but is likely to use media appearances in Rio to send a “strong message” to Lavrov and back to Putin as he considers extra sanctions on Moscow following the death of the opposition leader.

It came as senior politicians said it was “important” to confront and send a clear message to Russia’s foreign minister at the summit as well as sanctioning those allegedly involved in Navalny’s death, including senior officials responsible for his poisoning with the Novichok nerve agent in 2020.

As well as considering fresh sanctions over Navalny’s death, Cameron is leading a push among G7 allies to seize Russian bank assets, which are currently frozen, to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine, although i understands the plan is facing some resistance in the City. Financiers are thought to be concerned that it could deter people from using banks based in Britain if they are worried their assets could be seized by the state.

Cameron is likely to argue that Navalny’s death should “focus minds” of allies as he pushes for a tougher package of sanctions against Russia in the run-up to the two year anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on Saturday.

As well as attending the G20, the peer will make an intervention at the United Nations in New York on Friday with a “strong message” to the Security Council and the US Congress aimed at getting America to approve a fresh package of military aid to Ukraine, which is being resisted by Republican lawmakers with the backing of Donald Trump.

But the Foreign Secretary is not expected to repeat the kind of face-to-face showdown Rishi Sunak had with Lavrov when he stood in for Putin at 2022’s G20 meeting in Bali and told the minister to “get out of Ukraine”.

A Whitehall source said: “We try and make sure we keep our enemies close… that’s not the case with Russia.

“There is no plan for a bilateral meeting between the Foreign Secretary and Lavrov.

“I’m sure he will be sending a message to Lavrov using the media as a method to do that… if he does turn up.”

It came as senior MPs called for fresh sanctions in response to Navalny’s death and urged Cameron to confront Lavrov if he shows at the G20.

Conservative Bob Seely, who chairs the all party parliamentary group on Russia, said Kremlin officials who signed off on the poisoning of the dissident should be targeted.

“We should be confronting Lavrov and we should be using Magnitsky sanctions against those responsible,” he told i.

Seely also urged the Government to do “everything we can” to secure the release of Russian-British journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is now Russia’s “most high-profile political prisoner”.

Alicia Kearns called on the G20 to agree on seizing Russian central bank assets and an International Criminal Court special tribunal on the war crime of aggression in Ukraine, as well as backing calls for the UK to get Kara-Murza “home to safety” and urging the US to increase oil supply to “hit the heart of Putin’s economy”.

The Tory chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee told i: “The US threatened significant repercussions if Navalny was murdered, and now he has been, because his voice represented freedom from Putin autocracy.

“Biden must follow through on his threat or deterrence becomes more of a laughing stock.”

Lord Walney, a longstanding Putin critic who advises the Home Office on political violence, said the UK should attempt to replicate the diplomatic success after the Salisbury poisonings when it wrangled allies to hit Russia with tougher sanctions than expected.

“There is clear accountability in the Kremlin for his death.

“I hope the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary will be urgently discussing with allies a fresh wave of sanctions to show that we will continue to stand by those in Russia who have the bravery to defy this tyrannical autocratic, who is wreaking such death and destruction on his country and the world.”

He also said Cameron and allies should confront Lavrov over the dissident’s death at the G20.

The crossbench peer said: “However it’s done, whether it’s one-to-one or in a group setting, I think it’s really important for the UK and its allies across the G20 to send a clear message to Lavrov and to Putin that we see what he’s doing. His crimes – not only against the sovereign nation of Ukraine, but against his own people – will not be forgotten by the UK and the West.”