UK Official Believes Putin Authorized Skripal Novichok Attack

A senior UK government official has stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have authorized the 2017 assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. Jonathan Allen, director general of defence and intelligence at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), informed the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry that this authorization was due to the “enormous” reputational risk the Novichok poisonings would have presented to Russia. He further noted that Russia would have been “shocked” by the swiftness of the international response to the attempted killings, which subsequently led to the death of Ms Sturgess several months later. Mr. Allen also conveyed to the inquiry his belief that the attack was not meant to stay secret. The UK Government has previously stated that the poisonings occurred when two Russian agents applied Novichok to the handle of the Skripal’s front door. “There are many ways in which you could have ambiguity in the mind of an investigating authority as to whether someone had died naturally, or how they had died,” he commented. He continued, “Use of a nerve agent in this way is clearly going to be traced back to Russia.” “That’s why I believe it wasn’t intended to remain covert entirely – it was meant to act as a warning in my view,” he added. He further stated: “What I suspect they were not anticipating was how thoroughly and how quickly we were able to set out what had happened and the speed at which we made an international response happen – and therefore the speed at which Russia felt very serious consequences.” When questioned about who might have authorized the attack on Mr. Skripal, Mr. Allen responded: “It would have gone, in my view, to President Putin.“They are such big issues, such big risks to be taking.” Mr. Skripal, his daughter Yulia, and former police officer Nick Bailey were poisoned by the nerve agent in the Wiltshire city in March 2018. Ms. Sturgess, aged 44, passed away on 8 July 2018, after being exposed to Novichok, which had been found in a discarded perfume bottle in nearby Amesbury. During the inquiry on Thursday, Mr. Allen stated that the government had “learned from the Litvinenko experience, in which Russia played all sorts of games, dragged its feet, played with both the police investigation and ultimately the inquiry, pretending that it was going to co-operate and never doing so.“There was absolute clarity from the start, we were not going to let Russia string this out in the same way.“I think the second reason for internationalising, or going on this international strategy, was really to build quickly a coalition of countries who could both understand the risk and then take steps themselves to protect their own countries, but also could ultimately act together to deter and degrade Russia’s ability to do this in future.” The Russian government has consistently denied any involvement in the Salisbury poisonings, and the Russian embassy has been contacted for comment.