The U.K. government on Thursday (December 4, 2025) sanctioned Russia’s military intelligence unit, the GRU, in its entirety and summoned the Russian ambassador as an inquiry into the 2018 Salisbury poisoning published its final report. ‘The Dawn Sturgess Inquiry’, named after a woman who died in Salisbury after exposure to Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent, concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin had authorised the attack against targeting Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, both of whom were seriously injured, but survived.
Thursday’s announcement also named and sanctioned eleven persons associated with GRU. Ms. Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three, was not an intended target of the attack. The report, authored by former judge Anthony Hughes, concluded that Russian agents had discarded the Novichok-containing perfume bottle after applying it to the handle of the front door at Mr. Skripal’s house. Mr. Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a park bench on March 4, 2018. The bottle of Novichok, the report concludes, was picked up at some point by a Charley Rowley, who was in the habit of “scavenging public areas” to collect things of potential value to sell. He gifted the bottle to his partner, Ms. Sturgess, who sprayed her wrist with the contents on June 30, 2018. She died a few days later in hospital.
