Sergei Skripal

Sergei Skripal is a former Russian military intelligence officer who was targeted in a nerve agent attack in Salisbury, England, in March 2018. This event is newsworthy due to a recent public inquiry that has found Russian President Vladimir Putin to bear "moral responsibility" for the death of Dawn Sturgess, an innocent British woman who was inadvertently poisoned by the same Novichok nerve agent used in the attack on Skripal. The inquiry concluded that the poisoning was a botched assassination attempt authorized at the highest level. The UK government has responded by sanctioning Russia. The family of Dawn Sturgess has expressed concerns that lessons have not been learned from her death and criticized the UK state for not doing more to protect the public. The incident highlights ongoing tensions between the UK and Russia and raises questions about state-sponsored assassination attempts.