UK Inquiry Finds Putin Authorized Skripal Poisoning

A public inquiry has concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized the 2018 attempted assassination of former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England, using the nerve agent Novichok, an operation that resulted in the death of innocent bystander Dawn Sturgess four months later. The findings, released Thursday by inquiry chairman Lord Anthony Hughes, a retired Supreme Court judge, hold Putin and Russian military intelligence officers morally responsible for the reckless act, which exposed the public to lethal risks.

The attack unfolded on March 4, 2018, when Skripal, a former GRU officer who had spied for Britain and been released in a 2010 prisoner swap, and his daughter Yulia collapsed unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury after lunch. Novichok had been smeared on the door handle of Skripal's home. A responding police officer, Nick Bailey, also fell ill from exposure but all three survived after intensive treatment. The inquiry determined that three GRU agents from Unit 29155—identified as Aleksandr Mishkin (alias Alexander Petrov), Anatoliy Chepiga (alias Ruslan Boshirov), and Denis Sergeev (alias Sergey Fedotov)—carried out the mission.