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A lengthy and detailed public report in the UK has revealed that the assassination of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in 2018 was authorised at the highest levels of the Kremlin, including Russian President Vladimir Putin himself.
The inquiry, led by former High Court judge Lord Hughes, makes the shocking conclusion that Putin bears "moral responsibility" for the death of a British citizen, Dawn Sturgess, who was accidentally poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent used to kill Skripal.
Sergei Skripal, 74, a former officer in Russia's military intelligence service (GRU), arrived in Britain in 2010 as part of a spy swap. On March 4, 2018, he and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, 41, were poisoned in the city of Salisbury, leaving them in critical condition. British police officer Nick Bailey also fell seriously ill after searching their home.
All three survived, but a few months later, on June 30, 2018, a woman's partner, Charlie Rowley, found a bottle of Nina Ricci perfume laced with the nerve agent Novichok. He gave it to his girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess, who used it without knowing what it was. She died on July 8. Rowley survived, but was left with serious health consequences.
The 174-page report confirms that three GRU agents – known by the pseudonyms Alexander Petrov, Ruslan Boshirov and Sergey Fedotov – had travelled from Moscow to London to carry out the assassination. They applied Novichok to the door handle of Skripal’s home and then “irresponsibly” threw the bottle in a public area.
"They had no regard for the danger they were creating to an infinite number of innocent people," the report said.
Lord Hughes confirms that “the operation to kill Skripal was authorised at the highest level – by President Putin himself.” He adds that Sturgess’s own death is directly linked to this Russian state-sponsored assassination.
This investigation, which lasted seven weeks and cost over £8 million, brings to the fore fundamental questions about Britain's national security and how Russia continues to use poison agents on foreign soil to eliminate former spies and adversaries.
The United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on the perpetrators, but so far none have been arrested. The report could push London and Western allies towards a tougher line towards Moscow, especially in the context of ongoing tensions over the war in Ukraine.
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