The inquiry into the 2018 Novichok poisoning of Dawn Sturgess shows the UK must “remain vigilant” to “reckless” Russian hostile activity on UK soil, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The family of Ms Sturgess, meanwhile, said “there must be reflection and change” as they criticised the lack of recommendations in the public inquiry’s final report.
The 44-year-old’s death followed the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and then-police officer Nick Bailey, who were poisoned in Salisbury in March of the same year.
The inquiry’s final report said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “astonishingly reckless” and bears “moral responsibility” for Ms Sturgess’s death.
Responding to the report during a visit to RAF Lossiemouth in Moray, the Prime Minister said: “I’ll start with Dawn Sturgess’s family and friends, because we must always remember the grief that that they have gone through, the pain they’ve gone through.
“But this report is clear: moral responsibility lies with Putin. And it’s further evidence of the shocking and reckless hostile activity on UK soil.
“So, it’s very important that we’re putting the most stringent sanctions on the GRU for the first time, but it also reinforces why we need to remain vigilant to the ever-prevalent threat that is there from Putin and from Russia.
“That’s not just in Ukraine, in this case, the report is clear it’s on our soil. And here I am at Lossiemouth, where we’ve been discussing with personnel the work that they are doing to keep us safe from Russian threats, particularly in our waters.”
The UK sanctioned Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency in its entirety following the report’s release, with measures also hitting 11 people linked to state-sponsored hostile activity and Moscow’s ambassador being summoned to the Foreign Office.
The report found that a GRU military intelligence squad smeared the nerve agent on Mr Skripal’s door handle in a “public demonstration of Russian power”.
Sir Keir said the Government does “everything within our power” to keep Britons safe from Russian threats.
Asked whether he could guarantee another poisoning such as the one in 2018 could be prevented, the Prime Minister said: “Whether it’s intelligence, whether it’s the operations that are carried out from places such as this, we do everything within our power … to keep our citizens safe from all threats, but particularly at the moment threats from Russia.”
Relatives of Ms Sturgess, who died after being exposed to the nerve agent in Amesbury, Wiltshire, said it is a “matter for real concern” that no recommendations were made by the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry’s chairman, Lord Hughes of Ombersley.
Her father Stan Sturgess told reporters his family “can have Dawn back now”, adding: “She’s been public for seven years. We can finally put her to peace.”
In their statement, Ms Sturgess’s family said it was a “serious concern” that an “adequate risk assessment of Mr Skripal was not done” and “no protective steps were put in place”.
Summarising their response to the report, the statement read: “Today’s report has left us with some answers, but also a number of unanswered questions.
“We have always wanted to ensure that what happened to Dawn will not happen to others; that lessons should be learned; and that meaningful changes should be made.
“The report today contains no recommendations. That is a matter of real concern.
“There should, there must, be reflection and real change.”
The sanctions announced by the Foreign Office on Thursday target eight cyber military intelligence officers 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.
In the inquiry’s final report, published on Thursday, Lord Hughes concluded 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.”
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”.
The FCDO’s sanctions build on those announced in July on a string of Russian spies and hackers accused of trying to “destabilise Europe”.
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.”
Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Catherine Roper admitted the pain of Ms Sturgess’s family “was compounded by mistakes made by Wiltshire Police”, following the publication of the probe’s final report.
She said: “Dawn was wrongly described by Wiltshire Police as a known drug user – this was not correct and should never have happened. For this, I am truly sorry.
“Concerns were also raised during the inquiry with regards to how Wiltshire Police responded to the second Novichok incident.
“This included our officers’ interactions with other frontline responders.”
The force identified 21 areas for improvement and it fully accepts all recommendations made by the chairman in the report, Ms Roper said.
