A new UK public inquiry has concluded that Vladimir Putin personally authorised the 2018 Novichok attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal, calling it an "astonishingly reckless" operation that ultimately led to the death of British citizen Dawn Sturgess.
Skripal and his daughter Yulia
The report states that Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned after GRU operatives applied the nerve agent to the door handle of Skripal's home in Salisbury. Both survived along with a police officer who responded to the scene.
Investigators said there was overwhelming evidence of Russian state involvement and argued that such an operation could only have been approved at the highest levels of the Kremlin. Moscow has repeatedly denied any role in the incident.
Second major British investigation
The inquiry also found shortcomings in how British authorities managed Skripal's security as a former double agent, though it concluded the attack could not have been realistically prevented without imposing extreme protective measures.
This marks the second major British investigation to link Putin to an assassination attempt on United Kingdom soil, following a 2016 inquiry that tied the Russian leader to the polonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.
About Skripal
Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer who later spied for Britain, was arrested in Moscow in 2004 and convicted of passing state secrets to MI6. He was released six years later as part of a major United States-Russia spy swap and settled in Salisbury, where he had been living quietly with his daughter before the 2018 attack.
About Sturgess
Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three, tragically became an unintended victim of the 2018 Novichok poisoning in Salisbury. She was exposed to the same nerve agent that targeted Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, after coming into contact with a counterfeit perfume bottle that had been contaminated by Russian operatives. Sturgess fell critically ill and died about four months after the Skripal attack.