Vladimir Putin is “morally responsible” for the death of a British woman killed after she sprayed herself with a nerve agent smuggled into the UK by Russian agents to assassinate a former spy, an inquiry has concluded.

Lord Hughes, the chair of the inquiry , said the assassination attempt on the former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in March 2018 must have been authorised by the Russian president.

He said he was sure the Russian men took the fake perfume bottle containing the nerve agent novichok that killed Dawn Sturgess to Wiltshire and left it in Salisbury after the attempted hit on Skripal, which he described as “an astonishingly reckless act”. Putin may have wanted Skripal dead over what he knew, UK officials believe Read more

Hughes said the evidence that it was a Russian

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