LONDON: The UK on Thursday sanctioned Russia’s intelligence service and summoned Moscow’s ambassador after an inquiry said President Vladimir Putin bore “moral responsibility” for the death of a British woman in a 2018 nerve agent attack.

Mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after spraying herself with what she thought was perfume from a discarded bottle of chic Nina Ricci fragrance — but turned out to be the deadly chemical Novichok.

The public inquiry found the bottle had been dumped in the city of Salisbury in southwest England after two suspects thought to be Russian spies brought it there in a failed attempt to assassinate former double agent Sergei Skripal in March 2018.

The inquiry’s report found the assassination attempt “must have been authorised at the highest level, by President Putin”, and concluded the Russian leader bears “moral responsibility” for Sturgess’s death four months later.

“It is clear that this attack showed considerable determination and was expected to stand as a public demonstration of Russian power,” the report concluded.

Following its publication, London said it had summoned the Russian ambassador to answer for Moscow’s “ongoing campaign of hostile activity”.

The UK also sanctioned the Russian intelligence agency blamed for the attack, the GRU, “in its entirety”, the foreign ministry said, as well as 11 “actors behind Russian state-sponsored hostile activity”.

Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in the attack, but UK government officials have long suspected Putin of authorising it.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2025