Overview
- The independent inquiry led by Anthony Hughes concluded Dawn Sturgess was an innocent victim of a state-directed assassination attempt linked to the Salisbury poisonings.
- The UK imposed sanctions on the entirety of Russia’s GRU and targeted eleven additional individuals associated with hostile state activity.
- Foreign Secretary actions included summoning Ambassador Andrei Kelin after the findings placed moral responsibility on President Vladimir Putin and the GRU.
- Three GRU officers remain charged in the British criminal case and are subject to arrest warrants.
- The report criticized GRU agents for discarding a Novichok-laced perfume bottle that fatally exposed Sturgess, while noting security shortcomings but no underestimation of the risk to Sergei Skripal.