UK sanctions Russian intelligence agency GRU over Novichok poisoning
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A 2019 photo shows a British police officer walking in front of the house of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, in Salisbury, Britain.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
- UK sanctioned Russia's GRU after inquiry found Putin likely ordered the 2018 Novichok attack on Sergei Skripal, which led to Dawn Sturgess's death.
- The sanctions target the entire GRU, eight cyber officers, and three others involved in hostile activities in Ukraine and Europe.
- Russia denies involvement, dismissing the sanctions as "illegitimate" and vowing retaliatory measures; the Russian ambassador was summoned.
AI generated
LONDON - Britain on Dec 4 announced new sanctions against Russia, including the entire GRU military intelligence agency that was singled out in a UK public inquiry into the 2018 death of a woman poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok.
The government also summoned the Russian ambassador to demand a response to the inquiry’s findings
The public inquiry concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin must have ordered the nerve agent attack by GRU operatives on Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in 2018, in an incident that led to the death of an innocent woman, Dawn Sturgess.
“Today’s findings are a grave reminder of the Kremlin’s disregard for innocent lives,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in the government’s statement.
As one of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Britain has issued sanctions against a large number of Russian business figures, political leaders, companies and ships.
Following the Dec 4 inquiry report, it sanctioned the GRU in its entirety and eight cyber military intelligence officers.
Three other GRU officers who Britain said were responsible for orchestrating hostile activity in Ukraine and across Europe, including plotting an attack on Ukrainian supermarkets, were also sanctioned.
Russia has always denied any involvement in the Salisbury incident, and dismissed the latest British move.
“The Russian side does not recognise the illegitimate sanctions imposed under trumped-up pretexts in circumvention of the UN Security Council, and reserves the right to retaliatory measures,” the state news agency RIA quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.
“The British can be confident in the inevitability of such measures.” REUTERS
