Putin 'morally responsible' for UK novichok death

Inquiry blames Salisbury poisonings on Russian leader

- MILLIE COOKE POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Vladimir Putin ordered the “astonishingly reckless” attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal as a “public demonstration of Russian power”, a major inquiry into the Salisbury novichok poisonings has concluded.

The inquiry laid the blame for the attack on the Russian president, saying he was “morally responsible” for the death of Dawn Sturgess, an innocent bystander who died after being exposed to the chemical weapon after it was left in a discarded perfume bottle in Amesbury, Wiltshire, in July 2018.

Her death came four months after the attempted murder of Mr Skripal, a former spy, along with his daughter, Yulia, and a police officer, Nick Bailey, who were all harmed when members of a Russian GRU military intelligence squad smeared the nerve agent on Mr Skripal’s door handle.

Retired Supreme Court judge Anthony Hughes, who carried out the review into Sturgess’s death, found that the attempted assassination of Mr Skripal “must have been authorised at the highest level, by President Putin”, and that the GRU agents were “acting on instructions” when they carried out the attack.

He said: “It is clear that this attack showed considerable determination and was expected to stand as a public demonstration of Russian power.”

After the report was released, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper warned that Putin and his agents represent “an active threat to Britain’s citizens, our security and our prosperity”.

In a statement, she said: “We will not tolerate this brazen and despicable aggression on British soil. That is why we are exposing and sanctioning those carrying out malign acts for Moscow, and ramping up efforts to crush hostile Russian hybrid activity.”