Putin behind ‘dishonourable’ Skripal murder attempt: Novichok inquiry

The UK government believes the novichok poison attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia in 2018 was so sensitive only Vladimir Putin could have ordered it.

Would be assassins Alexander Petrov (R) and Ruslan Boshirov,at Salisbury train station. Picture: AFP.

Russian president Vladimir Putin authorised the Novichok murder attempt on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, in an operation which killed an innocent British woman Dawn Sturgess, a British inquiry has been told.

The inquiry, which seeks to investigate Ms Sturgess’s death in 2018, was told the British government believes the assassination attempt was so politically sensitive that it is “Her Majesty’s government view that President Putin authorised the operation”.

Mr Skripal, a former Russian spy who was part of a prisoner exchange in 2010, having spent the previous six years in a Russian jail as a political prisoner, gave new written evidence to the inquiry, also blaming Putin for the poisonings.

Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who was also seriously injured in the poison attack using deadly Novichok on March 4, 2018, have been excused from appearing at the inquiry in person because of security fears.

Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal.

The two have recovered from their near-death experiences and have been relocated to a different country and live under new identities.

Ms Sturgess, 44, used some perfume containing the Novichok poison, which had been found in a bin by her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley and died soon afterwards on July 8, 2018.

Mr Skripal told the inquiry chair Lord Anthony Hughes: “I believe Putin makes all important decisions himself. I therefore think he must have at least given permission for the attack.”

He added: “It is not honourable to kill people who have been exchanged and the attack on Yulia and me was an absolute shock.

“When I was still working in GRU special services in Russia I had access to secret information. I was aware of allegations that Putin had been involved in illegal activity to do with the disposal of rare metals.”

He added: “I have read that Putin is personally very interested in poison.”

The counsel to the inquiry Andrew O’Connor KC, said the circumstances of Sturgess’s death were “extraordinary, unique” and that the perfume bottle, left in a public place, “contained enough poison to kill thousands of people”. He said those who discarded the bottle in this way acted “with a grotesque disregard for human life”.

Earlier he had given detailed movements of three GRU agents, including Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, identified back in 2018 as the main suspects, made trips to Salisbury on the Saturday and then the Sunday of the attack. Mr O’Connor said cctv showed that the two GRU officers were walking down a street near to the Skripal house when Mr Skripal was driving his daughter into the Salisbury town centre just minutes before they collapsed on a shopping centre park bench.

Mr O’Connor said: “It is quite possible Sergei drove past Boshirov and Petrov … the cctv shows them in the same area at the same time, it does seem at least possible that Boshirov and Petrov may have been in the vicinity of Sergei Skripal’s house at the time the Skripals were leaving.’’ He also detailed a missing 31 minutes when the two Russians turned down a small street called Water Lane, suggesting this may have been the opportunity for the agents to dispose of the Novichok poison, contained inside a perfume bottle.

Lawyer for the Sturgess family, Adam Straw KC, said Dawn Sturgess was the collateral damage of global spy wars.

“It felt like James Bond meets The Archers,’’ he said. Mr Straw demanded Putin to attend the inquiry.

“He should not cower behind the walls of the Kremlin. He should look Dawn’s family in the eyes and answer the evidence against him,” Mr Straw said, adding the Novichok found on the front door of the Skripal residence was the same batch as that in the bottle which killed Sturgess.

The inquiry continues.