UK sanctions Russian scientists over ‘barbaric’ Navalny and Salisbury poisonings
The British government has imposed sanctions on the scientists and institutions responsible for the development of the Novichok nerve agent used in the 2018 Salisbury assassination.
This deadly poison led to the death of Dawn Sturgess and the attempted assassination of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
The State Department also announced targeted measures against Russians involved in the creation of the Epibatidine toxin. This clause was used against Alexei Navalny, a prominent opposition leader and vocal critic of Vladimir Putin.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Russia’s repeated use of chemical weapons is a sickening breach of international law and a direct threat to global security.
“From the use of Novichok nerve agents in Salisbury to Epibatidine in Siberia to the poisoning of Dawn Sturgess and Alexei Navalny, Russia continues to use barbaric means to inflict death and suffering on innocent civilians, including in Ukraine.
“We will continue to call out Russia’s violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention, hold those responsible accountable, and work with our allies to prevent the further use of these dangerous weapons.”
The sanctions, which include asset freezes and travel bans, apply to seven individuals and two research institutes.
The measures will target: Russian state scientific research institute SC Signal and state scientific research and testing institute for military medicine GNIII VM.
Scientists subject to sanctions include Andrei Antokhin and Viktor Taranchenko, who conducted research on Novichok nerve agents, and Vladimir Kondratyev, who co-authored a paper on the toxic qualities of Epibatidine.
Others added to the sanctions list were: SC Signal’s director Artur Zhirov, GNIII VM chief Sergei Chepur, SC Signal’s chief scientist Alexsandr Makhlay and SC Signal’s fourth head of scientific research department Ivan Kravstov.
Ms Sturgess, 44, died after being exposed to the chemical weapon known as Novichok, which was left in a discarded perfume bottle in Amesbury, Wiltshire, in July 2018.
It followed the attempted murder of former spy Mr Skripal, his daughter and then-police officer Nick Bailey, who were poisoned near Salisbury in March that year.
They were harmed when members of the Russian GRU military intelligence team applied nerve agent to Mr. Skripal’s door handle.
Alexander Petrov, 46, and Ruslan Boshirov, 47, are believed to have traveled to Salisbury together to carry out the attack, with the help of a third agent named Sergey Fedotov, the pseudonym of GRU officer Denis Sergeev.
Petrov’s real identity was believed to be Alexander Mishkin, a doctor in the GRU.
Boshirov was believed to be Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga.
Mr. Navalny died in a Siberian penal colony in 2024 after being targeted with Epibatidine, a substance developed from poison dart frog toxin.
