David Cameron accuses Russian foreign minister to his face: ‘You murdered Navalny’

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David Cameron has instructed Russia’s foreign minister to his face that Russia murdered Alexei Navalny – however Sergei Lavrov refused to meet his gaze and as a substitute checked out his telephone.

Britain’s foreign secretary used a gathering on the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro to confront the Russian illustration about Mr Navalny – Vladimir Putin’s most distinguished critic – who was introduced lifeless within the Arctic jail the place he was serving a decades-long jail sentence final week.

On Wednesday, the UK froze the property of six Russian jail bosses answerable for the “Polar Wolf” jail colony, turning into the primary nation to challenge sanctions over the killing of Navalny – saying that these chargeable for his “brutal treatment” will probably be held to account.

Speaking to the BBC, Lord Cameron mentioned that representatives for France, Canada and Germany joined him in utilizing speeches to identify Mr Navalny and say they maintain President Putin and the Russian state at massive chargeable for his homicide. The assembly occurred behind closed doorways, with every nation current getting 5 minutes to communicate, normally in alphabetical order.

Mr Navalny’s spouse, Yulia, has accused Putin of killing her husband, who was moved to the distant Arctic jail late final yr and has confronted a number of sentences on fees the worldwide neighborhood and Mr Navalny’s supporters imagine had been trumped up to attempt to silence him. His dying comes a month earlier than a presidential election the place Putin is anticipated to simply declare re-election.

Ms Navalnaya has mentioned that she believes Russia is hiding her husband’s physique, which is but to be returned to his household, till traces of novichok disappear from his system. Mr Navalny confronted life-saving therapy for poisoning with the nerve agent in Germany in 2020, an assault that he blamed on the Kremlin. Mr Navalny returned to Russia in 2021, was immediately arrested and had been in jail ever since. Yulia final noticed him in individual two years in the past.

Calling Putin and the Russian authorities “cowardly”, Ms Navalnaya spoke with anger in a video deal with launched on Monday. “My husband was unbreakable. And that’s precisely why Putin killed him,” she mentioned. “Shamefully, cowardly, without ever daring to look him in the eye or just say his name. And just as shamefully and cowardly, they are now hiding his body, not showing it to his mother, not giving it back, and pathetically lying and waiting for traces of another Putin novichok to disappear.”

“We know exactly why Putin killed Alexei three days ago,” Ms Navalnaya mentioned. “We will tell you about it soon. We will definitely find out who exactly carried out this crime, and how exactly. We will name the names and show the faces.”

Mr Navalny’s mom, Lyudmila Navalnaya, has filed a lawsuit at a court docket within the Arctic metropolis of Salekhard contesting officers’ refusal to launch her son’s physique.

Lyudmila appealed to Putin on Tuesday to launch her son’s stays in order that she might bury him with dignity.

“For the fifth day, I have been unable to see him. They wouldn’t release his body to me. And they’re not even telling me where he is,” a black-clad Navalnaya, 69, mentioned within the video, with the barbed wire of Penal Colony No 3 in Kharp, about 1,200 miles (1,900km) northeast of Moscow.

“I’m reaching out to you, Vladimir Putin. The resolution of this matter depends solely on you. Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei’s body is released immediately, so that I can bury him like a human being,” she mentioned within the video, which was posted to social media by Navalny’s group.

Russian authorities have claimed the reason for Navalny’s dying remains to be unknown and refused to launch his physique for the subsequent two weeks as a chemical evaluation takes place, members of Mr Navalny’s group have mentioned.

At the G20 summit in Brazil, Lord Cameron mentioned he used his speech to ask all of the international locations within the room if there was something extra vital to them than the sovereignty of their very own nation, citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is able to attain the two-year mark on Saturday. He added that messages about each Mr Navalny and Ukraine had been vital for Russia’s allies to hear. The UK has been on the forefront of efforts to help Ukraine in its battle towards Putin’s forces.

Associated Press contributed to this report