Putin bears 'moral responsibility' for Novichok poisoning of Dawn Sturgess, UK inquiry finds

A UK inquiry into the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal has found the Russian president authorised the attack which led to the poisoning death of mother Dawn Sturgess.

Personnel in protective gear work investigating the nerve-agent poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Picture: AP /Frank Augstein

Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered the assassination of former agent Sergei Skripal to serve as an “international demonstration of Russian power”, a UK inquiry has concluded.

The report concluded that the March 2018 poisoning attempt using the nerve agent Novichok against Mr Skripal in Salisbury, southwest England, “must have been authorised at the highest level, by President Putin”.

Mr Skripal and his daughter evaded the assassination attempt but it resulted in the poisoning death of British woman Dawn Sturgess.

Former senior judge Anthony Hughes, chair of the inquiry, said an assassination attempt on British soil would provoke serious diplomatic reprisals and international sanctions against Russia, and therefore would not have been risked “without senior approval”. He concluded that the “astonishingly reckless” operation “must have been authorised at the highest level, by President Putin”.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned in March 2018.

Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in the attack but UK government officials have long suspected Mr Putin and summoned the Russian envoy after the report’s release.

Ms Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three, died in July 2018 after spraying herself with what she thought was perfume from a discarded bottle — but turned out to be the deadly chemical.

Dawn Sturgess died in July 2018 after being exposed to a nerve agent Novichok, four months after it was used against former agent Sergei Skripal in an attempted attack.

The counterfeit perfume box that was discovered by nerve agent victim Charlie Rowley, who later gave it, and the bottle inside, to his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess.

British authorities believe the bottle was dumped in Salisbury by the suspects Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov — thought to be GRU Russian intelligence agents — who had targeted Mr Skripal.

“The conduct of Petrov and Boshirov, their GRU superiors, and those who authorised the mission up to and including, as I have found, President Putin, was astonishingly reckless,” inquiry chair, Mr Hughes said.

“They, and only they, bear moral responsibility for Dawn’s death.” Following the publication of the report, London said it had summoned the Russian ambassador to answer for Moscow’s “ongoing campaign of hostile activity”.

The UK also sanctioned the GRU “in its entirety”, the foreign ministry said, as well 11 “actors behind Russian state-sponsored hostile activity”.

The inquiry found that while there were some “failings” in the handling of Skripal’s security, it was not “unreasonable” for intelligence to believe that there was not at high risk of assassination.

Enough to poison ‘thousands’

Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March 2018 after the door handle to Skripal’s house was daubed with the nerve agent.

They survived after intensive hospital treatment and now live under protection. Sturgess died four months later, when her partner found the Nina Ricci perfume bottle while likely looking through bins and gave it to her.

The public inquiry into her death, which began last year, was told by lawyer Andrew O’Connor that Sturgess was unwittingly caught up in an “illegal and outrageous international assassination attempt”.

The perfume bottle contained enough Novichok to poison “thousands” of people, Mr O’Connor had told the inquiry.

In a witness statement submitted to the inquiry, Mr Skripal said he believed Putin had ordered the attack on him.

“That he ordered the attack is my private opinion, based on my years of experience and my analysis of the continuous degradation of Russia,” Mr Skripal said, but he added: “I do not have concrete evidence to support this.”

While Mr Skripal did not give evidence in person over safety concerns, the inquiry also had closed sessions to hear about intelligence matters.

The incident led to what was then the largest-ever expulsion of diplomats between Western powers and Russia, and a limited round of sanctions by the West.