(8 months, 2 weeks ago)
Commons ChamberI think the hon. Gentleman can sense that the House knows there is no equivalence.
In 2020, Alexei Navalny was treated in hospital in Berlin, having been poisoned in Russia with a toxin subsequently identified as Novichok, also used in the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018. Given the use of the same toxin in such similar circumstances, does my hon. Friend not agree that it is overwhelmingly likely that agents of the Russian state were responsible for the attempted murder of Navalny in 2020 and that the current protestations by the Russian state that it was not responsible for his death last week are entirely risible? How are the Government ensuring that those who are responsible are brought to book and tried before a court?
My right hon. Friend is correct. That is why we demand a full and transparent investigation, because those individuals involved must be held to account.