Putin signed off on assassination attempt on UK soil that killed mother-of-three

Vladimir Putin is ‘morally responsible’ for the death of Dawn Sturgess – at the hands of Novichok brought from Russia to the UK in a Nina Ricci perfume bottle, a new report has found.

When the 44-year-old unknowingly sprayed herself with the military-grade nerve agent before collapsing in a flat in Amesbury, in Wiltshire, she did not know she had been caught in the crossfire of an ‘outrageous’ deliberate attack on UK soil – orchestrated by the Kremlin.

The British government previously blamed Russia for the assassination attempt on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury in March 2018.

But now the Dawn Sturgess inquiry – which was ordered by former home secretary Priti Patel in 2021 and held over seven weeks between October and December last year – has backed up this belief, concluding today that the Russian president authorised this attack.

Rt Hon Lord Hughes, who is behind the long-awaited inquiry into Sturgess, said: ‘Petrov, Boshirov and Fedotov were members of an operational team within the GRU – the Russian intelligence military agency responsible for foreign intelligence gathering.

‘I am sure that, in conducting their attack on Sergei Skripal, they were acting on instructions.

‘I have concluded that the operation to assassinate Skripal must have been authorised at the highest level, bypresident Putin.

‘All those involved in the assassination attempt – not only Petrov, Boshirov and Fedotov, but also those who sent them, and anyone else giving authorisation… were morally responsible for Dawn Sturgess’ death.

‘Deploying a highly toxic nerve agent in a busy city was an astonishingly reckless act.

‘The risk that others beyond the intended target, Sergei Skripal, might be killed or injured was entirely foreseeable.

‘The risk was entirely magnified by leaving a bottle of Novichok disguised as perfume in the city.’

Both of the Skripals survived the poisoning and so did Sturgess’ boyfriend Charlie Rowley, who had unwittingly given her the bottle containing ‘enough poison to kill thousands of people’.

All members of the Russian GRU military intelligence squad are unlikely to ever face justice – and did not give evidence at the closed-doors inquiry – as the Russian constitution does not allow the extradition of its citizens it is unlikely they will ever stand trial.

The two main suspects previously gave an interview with Russian state media, which they said they were only in the UK, briefly, to visit Salisbury Cathedral.

Following the publication of the inquiry report, the GRU has been sanctioned in its entirety by the UK, the Foreign Office said.

What was Putin’s motive to murder Skripal?

The attack on the ex-Russian military intelligence officer was ‘deliberate’.

Lord Hughes confirmed there is a ‘clear connection’ between Skripal and Russia, and a motive to assassinate him after he was arrested for spying on behalf of the UK, after being recruited as a double agent.

‘There is no evidence to suggest that anyone else had a motive to kill him,’ the report said.

Previous Russian allegations that the scheme was orchestrated by the UK government to ‘cast public blame on Russia’ does not ‘hold water’, it was added.

The report added: ‘The evidence that this was a Russian state attack is overwhelming.

‘The attack on Skripal by Russia was not designed simply as revenge, but amounted to a public statement, for both international and domestic consumption, that Russia willact decisively in what it regards as its own interests.’

What happened to Dawn Sturgess?

Sturgess’ partner gifted her a small bottle of what was labelled as a Nina Ricci perfume – which the inquiry believes was where the Russian agents stored Novichok and used to douse Skripal’s front door.

Using the pump, she sprayed it on her wrists. She may have also inhaled some of the vapours of the substance.

Hours later, she fell seriously ill. More than a week later on July 8, she was dead.

The cause was determined to be hypoxic ischaemic brain injury and intracranial brain haemorrhage – all attributed to the Novichok poisoning.

At an early stage of the inquiry, the victim’s family questioned whether her life could have been saved.

The inquiry decided that she received ‘entirely appropriate medical care’ – from ambulance staff and doctors at the hospital – and that there was no chance that she could have survived.

Lord Hughes stressed: ‘Looking back, I am sure that no medical treatment could in fact have saved her life.’

He later added: ‘She was sadly beyond recovery before any first responders were able to reach her.’

Could the UK have prevented the attack?

Multiple state failings were set out in the report – from the management of Skirpal as an exchanged ex-prisoner to the training of emergency services who were dispatched to Sturgess’ flat in the hours after she was poisoned.

Lord Hughes determined that the government failed to conduct ‘sufficient, regular’ written assessments about the risk of an attack on his life directed from the top echelons of the Kremlin.

He added: ‘But I do not think that the assessment that Skripal was not at a significant risk of assassination by Russian personnel can be said to have been unreasonable, although… events demonstrated that it was wrong.’

The former Russian military intelligence officer – who acted as a double agent for the UK during the 1990s and early 2000s – could only have been saved from the assassination attempt if the government had given him an entirely new identity and hidden him, severing all contact with his family.

The inquiry added: ‘As of 2018, the risk was not so severe as to demand such far-reaching precautions.’

After the attack in Salisbury, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) training to personnel was ‘appropriate’ and ‘it could and should have been more widely circulated.’  

Who are the Russian assassins sent to the UK?

On March 2, 2018, three Russian travellers flew from Moscow to London – Alexander Petrov, Ruslan Boshirov and Sergey Fedotov – aliases intended to conceal that they were deployed by the Kremlin.

The inquiry confirmed that their real identities are Aleksandr Mishkin, Anatoliy Chepiga and Denis Sergeev.

Both Petrov and Boshirov were aware that others might also touch the door handle to Sergei Skripal’s front door – particularly his daughter, Yulia, who was staying at the house at the time.

The assassins brought with them to Salisbury the ‘Nina Ricci’ bottle with Novichok made in Russia, and later threw it away before fleeing Salisbury on March 4.

Both had ‘no regard’ for the death that followed, the inquiry determined.

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