Also appearing on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Conservative shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel called on the government to “step up its own actions” against Russia because sanctions are “being busted and circumvented”.
Speaking from the conference in Munich, she said: “Action needs to be taken against Russia, there’s no doubt about that, and you will recall when Alexei Navalny was murdered back in 2024 it was our government that led the way in terms of sanctions, taking drastic action, calling for the transparent investigation of his murder.
“We need to do much more, I think, when it comes to action against Russia.
“We really need to take direct action against some of the individuals in the UK, the ambassador again needs to be called in.”
Dame Priti argued for “cutting off all the financial flows that are basically still propping up Russia and the Russian economy”, including closing down Russian oil refineries.
“We’ve got to target those businesses and go after them,” she said.
“We’ve really got to start taking direct action against these financial lifelines that basically are propping up Russia, the Russian state, and this awful permissive Russian activity that we’re seeing, including the state sponsored murders and assassinations that the Russian state is so heavily involved in.”
A statement from the Russian embassy in London has continued to deny all involvement in Navalny’s death, stating: “There is no reason whatsoever to credit such ‘findings’ by Western ‘experts’.
“As with the Skripal case, there are strident accusations, media hysteria, zero evidence, and a host of questions the accusers would rather ignore.
“So what was it in the end – poison derived from the skin of a South American frog or Novichok?”
The statement added: “We have become accustomed to the feeble-mindedness of Western fabulists. One must ask what kind of person would believe this nonsense about a frog.
“Yet what truly shocks is the method now favoured by Western politicians – necro-propaganda. This is not a quest for justice but a mockery of the dead.
“Even after the death of the Russian citizen, London and the European capitals cannot allow him to rest in peace – a fact that speaks volumes about those who instigated this campaign.”