Sergei Skirpal in 2006 at a hearing at the Moscow District Military Court(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

Novichok poisoning survivor Sergei Skripal blames Vladimir Putin directly for attack

Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia narrowly survived the attack in 2018, during which members of a Russian military intelligence squad are believed to have smeared the nerve agent on a door handle

by · The Mirror

A former spy who was the target of Novichok attack on British soil has laid the blame squarely on the Russian Government - and in particular Vladimir Putin.

Brit Dawn Sturgess came into contact with the chemical weapon after it was left in a discarded perfume bottle in Amesbury, Wiltshire, in July 2018. 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 poisoned when members of a Russian military intelligence squad are believed to have smeared the nerve agent on Mr Skripal’s door handle. All three survived, as did Ms Sturgess’s boyfriend Charlie Rowley, who had unwittingly given the 44-year-old the bottle containing the killer nerve agent.

Dawn Sturgess died in 2018( Image: AFP/Getty Images)

In a statement read at the inquiry into the death of Ms Sturgess, Mr Skripal said: “I believe Putin makes all important decisions himself. I therefore think he must have at least given permission for the attack on Yulia and me. Any GRU commander taking a decision like this without Putin’s permission would have been severely punished.

“That is what I meant when I said 'special services in Russia will do nothing again without permission Putin' that he ordered the attack is my private opinion, based on my years of experience and my analysis of the continuous degradation of Russia. I do not have concrete evidence to support this.”

Members of the military wear protective clothing at home of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury( Image: PA)

The former spy added: "When I was still working in GRU special services in Russia I had access to secret information. I was aware of allegations that Putin had been involved in illegal activity to do with the disposal of rare metals. I have always thought poison is a KGB technique because it is not honourable.

"GRU relations with the KGB and later the FSB were generally bad while I was working in the GRU and we did not cooperate so I have not myself seen evidence of the KGB using poison. I have read that Putin is personal very interested in poison and likes reading books about it. I believe I read this somewhere online although I cannot now remember where. I am aware of the poisoning of Litvinenko in 2006.

“I think Yulia was right in principle when she said 'If [the Russian government] want to kill you they will find a way anywhere'. Nobody can be protected 100% from an assassin, especially one who plans carefully or is prepared to die.”

Charlie Rowley survived the attack( Image: Reach Commissioned)

It was previously revealed that the Skripals will not give evidence at the inquiry over fears for their safety. It comes as Wiltshire Police said people in Salisbury city centre can expect to see an increased police presence for the duration of the hearing. They added that there is “no current intelligence to suggest there is any risk to the wider public”.

Andrew O’Connor KC, counsel to the Dawn Sturgess inquiry, told the hearing: “It’s no exaggeration to say the circumstances of Dawn Sturgess’s death were extraordinary, they were indeed unique.”

Ms Sturgess “lived a life that was wholly removed from the worlds of politics and international relations”, he added. “When Ms Sturgess was poisoned by Novichok four months after the Skripal poisoning, the real possibility emerged that she had been caught – an innocent victim – in the crossfire of an illegal and outrageous international assassination attempt. Whether or not that is in fact what happened will, of course, be for you to determine.”

Yulia Skripal, the daughter of Russian spy Sergei( Image: PA)

He added: “A particularly shocking feature of Dawn’s death is that she unwittingly applied the poison to her own skin. She was entirely unaware of the mortal danger she faced, because the highly toxic liquid had been concealed – carefully and deliberately concealed – inside a perfume bottle.

“Moreover, the evidence will suggest that this bottle – which we shall hear contained enough poison to kill thousands of people – must earlier have been left somewhere in public place creating the obvious risk that someone would find it and take it home. You may conclude, sir, that those who discarded the bottle in this way acted with a grotesque disregard for human life.”