UK sanctions GRU after Putin found ‘morally responsible’ for Novichok death

The UK has sanctioned Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency in its entirety, after an inquiry found Vladimir Putin bears “moral responsibility” for the nerve agent death of Dawn Sturgess.

The measures also hit 11 people linked to state-sponsored hostile activity, and Moscow’s ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office.

It comes after the independent inquiry concluded the Russian president was “astonishingly reckless” for deploying Novichok on UK soil in 2018. The chemical weapon, left in a discarded perfume bottle, killed Ms Sturgess in Amesbury, Wiltshire.

It followed the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and then-police officer Nick Bailey, who were poisoned in nearby Salisbury in March that year.

They were harmed when members of a GRU military intelligence squad smeared the nerve agent on Mr Skripal’s door handle in a “public demonstration of Russian power”.

The sanctions announced by the Foreign Office on Thursday target eight cyber military intelligence officers for working for the GRU, which was responsible for cyber operations targeting Ms Skripal with X-agent malware and, five years later, the attempted murder of her and her father.

A further three GRU officers were designated for orchestrating plots elsewhere in Europe, including planning a terror attack on Ukrainian supermarkets.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “The Salisbury poisonings shocked the nation and today’s findings are a grave reminder of the Kremlin’s disregard for innocent lives.

“Dawn’s needless death was a tragedy and will forever be a reminder of Russia’s reckless aggression. My thoughts are with her family and loved ones.

“The UK will always stand up to Putin’s brutal regime and call out his murderous machine for what it is.

“Today’s sanctions are the latest step in our unwavering defence of European security, as we continue to squeeze Russia’s finances and strengthen Ukraine’s position at the negotiating table.”

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Putin and his GRU agents are an active threat to Britain’s citizens, our security and our prosperity.

“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.”

The measures build on sanctions announced in July on a string of Russian spies and hackers accused of trying to “destabilise Europe”.

Security minister Dan Jarvis told the Commons that the UK is “grappling with an increasingly reckless methodology”, with MI5 recently highlighting “Russian state actors turning to proxies for their dirty work, recruiting disposable individuals on social media platforms, instructing them via encrypted apps and then offering payment in cryptocurrencies”.

In the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry’s final report, published on Thursday, chairman Lord Hughes of Ombersley concluded that the attempted assassination of Mr Skripal “must have been authorised at the highest level, by President Putin”.

The chairman of the inquiry, which cost £8.3 million, said GRU agents Alexander Petrov, Ruslan Boshirov and Sergey Fedotov were “acting on instructions” when they carried out the attack.

After the report’s publication, Lord Hughes said: “The conduct of Petrov and Boshirov, their GRU superiors, and those who authorised the mission up to and including, as I have found, President Putin, was astonishingly reckless.

“They, and only they, bear moral responsibility for Dawn’s death.”

The 174-page report read: “All those involved in the assassination attempt (not only Petrov, Boshirov and Fedotov, but also those who sent them, and anyone else giving authorisation or knowing assistance in Russia or elsewhere) 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.

“That risk was dramatically magnified by leaving in the city a bottle of the Novichok disguised as perfume.”

In a statement after the report’s release, Ms Sturgess’s family said: “The inquiry has concluded that Dawn was a wholly innocent victim, killed by Novichok, as the direct result of Russia’s cruel and cynical attempt to assassinate Sergei Skripal.

“The inquiry’s report concludes that there were failures by the UK Government in the management and assessment of the risk that Russia posed to Sergei Skripal.

“Skripal was described by Putin as a traitor and convicted of treason.

“Yet there were no sufficient and regular assessments of the risk he faced from Russian retaliation.

“As we have always believed, that put the British public at risk, and led to Dawn’s death.”