Moscow sounded a discordant note in Tony Blair’s international swansong on Thursday, rejecting this week’s warning of a potential economic backlash against Russia if it failed to meet democratic standards as the “emotional words of, after all, an ex-prime minister”.

This dismissive rejoinder from Sergei Storchak, the Russian deputy finance minister, to British diplomatic pressure highlighted the extent to which the prime minister’s imminent departure from office is overshadowing his last global summit.