The nerve agent Novichok is back in the headlines and it’s making the Russian intelligence service GRU a little nervous. British authorities are anxious too. The inquiry is to find out how the incident was handled from their end. A crucial question is whether or not it could have been prevented in the first place. The main event is “an independent inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess.” She was an “innocent bystander” living near the town of Salisbury, England in 2018. The targets, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, both survived. It’s amazing the entire town wasn’t wiped out by the Russian agents’ negligently careless handling. This toxin is so deadly you don’t even want to look at the stuff.
Novichok in a perfume bottle
Dawn Sturgess was 44 years old at the time of her death from Novichok poisoning. The independent inquiry into how it happened got a whole lot more interesting when the judge gave the parties security clearance. She inadvertently doused herself with enough to kill everyone in a shopping mall.
All the evidence is expected to be presented linking “her death and the attempted murder of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.” Because U.K. intelligence services blamed Russia for the attempted hit, “the inquiry will hear some highly classified evidence in private.”
The mother of three “was fatally poisoned after spraying herself with the contents of a perfume bottle.” Pure Novichok. She died on July 8, 2018 in Salisbury Hospital and can thank her “partner,” Charlie Rowley for that. He informed police “had found the perfume in a charity collection bin” on June 27. Apparently, he didn’t give it a sniff before gifting Ms. Sturgess with the bottle, because he’s still alive.
The big question is whether or not authorities should have seen it coming. The “fact that Mr Skripal was a former senior GRU officer” living in the UK “arguably placed him at some risk.” Sergei told police in 2018, “I am a very important man of special services. Still now I know a lot of Russian secrets, top secrets, they are really dangerous for Russian special services.”
Shortly after sampling the new Eau de Novichok “perfume,” she “collapsed at Mr Rowley’s house in Amesbury, about seven miles from Salisbury.” That was June 30. Rowley “also became ill but was discharged from hospital” three weeks later.
The “advanced” nerve agent was “developed by the former Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s.” At the time, the toxin was advertised as “extremely effective in very small quantities.” The label warns it needs “to be transported in tightly sealed containers by someone wearing protective clothing.”
Painted on the doorknob
The initial assassination attempt was much earlier. “Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned” on March 4. Sergei was an alleged spy for Britain’s MI6. The Russians threw him in jail in 2006.
“He was later pardoned and allowed to settle in the UK in 2010.” His wife, son and older brother were all dead by the time his daughter Yulia Skripal “arrived in the UK from Moscow.” The day before the hit attempt. The Novichok carrying killers may have been on the same flight.
After both were discovered collapsed on a bench in a shopping plaza, “in a serious condition,” it “was subsequently discovered that they were suffering from the effects of a chemical which had been left on the doorknob of Mr Skripal’s home.”
Military labs identified it as Novichok. After lengthy stays in the hospital, both “are believed to have made a full recovery.” They’re still in hiding. The cop who was first on the scene at their home, Detective Sargent Nick Bailey, “spent nearly three weeks in hospital.”
Testimony has revealed “the vial opened by Dawn Sturgess before her death had enough poison to kill thousands of people.” In a formal written statement Sergei Skripal relates “it is not honorable to kill people who have been exchanged and the attack on Yulia and me was an absolute shock.”
“I had received a presidential pardon and was a free man with no convictions under Russian law. They could have killed me easily if they wanted to when I was in prison.” He’s also convinced President Vladimir Putin “must have at least given permission” for the Novichok attack. Any “GRU (Russian Federation) commander taking a decision like this without Putin’s permission would have been severely punished.“