Death of Alexei Navalny

Lord Berkeley of Knighton Excerpts

Monday 19th February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

Again, the noble Baroness provides a very personal insight of her experiences. I recall the time of the great and late Lady Thatcher and her meeting with Mr Gorbachev—that this was someone “we can do business with”. I remember, in my much younger years, the great inspiration that we were seeing the coming down of that wall that was created; the Cold War was coming to an end. Yet here we are in 2024 and many of those issues and challenges, and the antagonistic nature of what Russia presented, are still being realised today.

Therefore, yes, there are many unintended consequences which Mr Putin did not foresee, including the expansion of NATO to new members and a new, increased resilience among existing NATO members, and of course we are looking very much towards Ukraine’s accession. On the point about Hungary, yes, I can assure my noble friend we are very much seized of that. Again, at the moment, I am at the Raisina dialogue in India and I saw on the list the Hungarian Foreign Minister, who I know well personally. I have indicated to my team that, if he is present, I wish to meet with him on the very issue my noble friend raises.

[Lord Berkeley of Knighton (CB)]

Given what the Minister and other noble Lords have said, will the Minister comment on the importance of getting the message from the West across to the people of Russia? I am thinking particularly of the BBC World Service, of course—but other news organisations as well. That is part of our soft power. It is one of the few things we can really do in these circumstances.

There is another thing I would ask the Minister to endorse. Mrs Navalny talked about not just the loss of a future, the loss of her husband’s future, but the loss of the future that he held for Russia—Mother Russia and the people that he loved there. Having myself been there several times, had music performed there, and been really welcomed extraordinarily by the Russian people, I think—especially given what the noble Lord, Lord Howell, said—of the experience of Dmitri Shostakovich, who of course Stalin tried to keep quiet and almost had killed. In fact, he would have had him killed after the first performance of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk: there was a terrible review in Pravda, which normally would have spelled the death of someone. So I endorse the importance of the spirit of the Russian people. We may take succour from these great works of art, whether from Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn or Shostakovich, which show that the human spirit somehow prevails. Mr Navalny would want us to think in those positive terms. As Mrs Navalny said, “We will fight on”.

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

I totally endorse the noble Lord’s statement, views and indeed sentiments. He brings a valuable dimension to the discussion and questions that we have about the strength of UK soft power, including the use of the incredible service that the BBC provides to many countries, including the Russian people. I certainly take on board what he said. As my noble friend said earlier, our fight is not with the Russian people. Indeed, Russian culture through history has enriched not just the Russian people but the world.