How David Cameron can punish Russia for Alexei Navalny death
Lord Cameron is likely to be considering so-called Magnitsky sanctions on Russian officials implicated in jailed dissident Alexei Navalny’s death as he weighs up the UK Government’s response.
The Foreign Secretary is also likely to be considering Labour calls to sanction more people on Navalny’s so-called “list”, which began as 35 people involved in his poisoning and detention but has been expanded by his Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) to include nearly 8,000 human rights abusers, kleptocrats and corrupt individuals.
Governments are reluctant to signal in advance of making an announcement of their plans for sanctions, as it could cause those targeted to move their assets.
But Cameron on Monday night said he expected the UK and G7 allies to impose fresh sanctions on Russians involved in the opposition leader’s death in an Arctic penal colony last Friday.
i understands the UK could announce sanctions before the United States, which has said it would unveil a package on Friday.
Cameron has faced calls from senior Conservatives to use Magnitsky sanctions – named after Sergei Magnitsky, a tax lawyer who uncovered a £182m fraud by Kremlin officials and died in a Russian jail in 2009 – that allow the targeting of those involved in human rights violations or corruption.
Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy has meanwhile called for Cameron to consider sanctions on the full Navalny list, as the UK has only acted against an estimated 1,162 of 7,945, according to the ACF.
Speaking to reporters during his visit to the Falkland Islands, Cameron said on Monday: “I think the first thing is just to remember what a great man Alexei Navalny was, and what an appalling regime Putin runs in Russia.
“And yes, there will be consequences. What we do in these situations is we look at how someone’s human rights have been damaged and the individual people that caused that, and we’re able to go after those people with particular measures.
“Now we never pre-announce sanctions in advance, I can’t do that.
“But what I can tell you is at the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Munich, I pressed that the United Kingdom will be doing that and I urged other countries to do the same. And I believe very much that both those things will happen.”
It came as the United States confirmed it would unveil a “major sanctions package” targeted at Russia on Friday in response to Mr Navalny’s death.
Joe Biden’s National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters the measures would “hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr Navalny”.
Cameron is likely to use visits this week to the G20 foreign ministers’ summit in Brazil and the UN in New York to co-ordinate backing among allies for tougher sanctions in response to Mr Navalny’s death and ahead of the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Saturday.
