Vladimir Putin ‘Morally Responsible’ for Dawn Sturgess Novichok death, UK inquiry finds

A long awaited UK inquiry has concluded that Vladimir Putin bears "moral responsibility" for the death of Dawn Sturgess, who was fatally poisoned after coming into contact with a nerve agent brought into the country during an assassination attempt on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in 2018.

The inquiry findings state that the operation that planted the novichok in Wiltshire would not have been possible without authorisation at the highest level of the Russian state.

Inquiry Says Attack Was Sanctioned At The Top

Lord Hughes of Ombersley, who chaired the inquiry, said he was certain that the mission targeting Skripal in March 2018 had been approved by Putin. According to him, the Russian operatives brought a fake perfume bottle loaded with novichok into the UK and discarded it in Salisbury after their failed attempt to kill Skripal. He described this as "an astonishingly reckless act" that placed the wider public in grave danger.

Hughes said the evidence pointing to the involvement of the Russian state was "overwhelming" and referred to the attack as "a public demonstration of Russian state power for both international and domestic impact". He named the accused operatives, Alexander Petrov, Ruslan Boshirov and Sergey Fedotov, as members of a GRU operational team responsible for carrying out instructions abroad.

"I am sure that in conducting their attack on Sergei Skripal, they were acting on instructions. I have concluded that the operation to assassinate Sergei Skripal must have been authorised at the highest level, by President Putin," he said.

The Path From Salisbury To A Fatal Poisoning

Dawn Sturgess, a 44 year old mother, lost her life after unknowingly spraying the novichok on herself on 30 June 2018 at the Amesbury home of her partner, Charlie Rowley. The bottle had been disguised as a perfume container and was found by Rowley, who later gave it to Sturgess. Hughes ruled that those who planned and executed the Skripal attack were "morally responsible" for her death.

He added, "Deploying a highly toxic nerve agent in a busy city was an astonishingly reckless act. The risk that others beyond the intended target might be killed or injured was entirely foreseeable. The risk was dramatically magnified by leaving in the city a bottle of novichok disguised as perfume."

Hughes said he was certain that Petrov and Boshirov carried the bottle into Salisbury, applied the nerve agent to Skripal's front door on 4 March, and discarded it without concern for the danger it posed. He noted that Rowley likely found the bottle "within a few days" of it being abandoned.

"There is a clear causative link between the use and discarding of the novichok by Petrov and Boshirov and the death of Dawn Sturgess," he said.

Failures Examined, But State Not Found Negligent

The inquiry also considered whether the British government failed in its responsibilities before or after the Salisbury poisonings. Hughes found shortcomings in the way Skripal had been monitored as an exchanged spy, saying that regular written assessments were lacking. However, he determined that the judgement that Skripal was not at significant risk of assassination was not unreasonable based on available intelligence.

He also said that additional security measures would not realistically have prevented the attack since only a complete identity change and full concealment could have removed the risk.

Following the Salisbury incident, emergency services did undergo training to recognise symptoms of nerve agent exposure, though Hughes said these measures should have been more widely implemented. He also criticised Wiltshire police for incorrectly characterising Sturgess as a drug user when she was admitted to hospital.

Public health authorities were not faulted for failing to advise residents not to pick up objects in public spaces. Hughes said this was reasonable because officials still did not know the extent of the agents' movements at that point.

Medical Response And Final Moments

The inquiry concluded that Sturgess received "entirely appropriate medical care" despite the dire nature of her condition. Hughes said her brain injury had become unsurvivable very early, even before the ambulance crew arrived.

"It is absolutely clear that her condition was in fact unsurvivable from a very early stage before the time the ambulance crew arrived to treat her. This was a result of the very serious brain injury that was itself the consequence of her heart stopping for an extended period of 30 minutes or so immediately after she was poisoned."

The inquiry held public hearings in Salisbury and London between 14 October and 2 December 2024. Additional closed sessions earlier in the year were used to present highly sensitive intelligence. The total cost of the inquiry was £8.3 million.