UK sanctions Russian scientists and research labs linked to Salisbury attack

The scientists and institutions responsible for developing the Novichok nerve agent used in the 2018 Salisbury assassination plot have been hit with sanctions by the UK government.

Dawn Sturgess died after coming into contact with the poison which was used in an attempted assassination of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

The sanctions announced by the Foreign Office also targeted the Russians involved in the development of the Epibatidine toxin used against Alexei Navalny, a prominent opposition leader and critic of Vladimir Putin.

UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Russia’s repeated use of chemical weapons is a sickening violation of international law and a direct threat to global security.

“From the use of Novichok nerve agents in Salisbury to Epibatidine in Siberia, poisoning Dawn Sturgess and Alexei Navalny, Russia continues to use barbaric tools 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 to account, and work with allies to deter further use of these dangerous weapons.”

The sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, apply to seven individuals and two research institutes.

The measures will target: SC Signal, a Russian state scientific research institute, and GNIII VM, the state scientific research and testing institute for military medicine.

The scientists hit by 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.

The others added to the sanctions list were: SC Signal’s director Artur Zhirov, GNIII VM chief Sergei Chepur, the chief scientist at SC Signal Alexsandr Makhlay and head of SC Signal’s fourth 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 in nearby Salisbury in March that year.

They were harmed when members of a Russian GRU military intelligence squad smeared the nerve agent on Mr Skripal’s door handle.

Alexander Petrov, 46, and Ruslan Boshirov, 47, are believed to have travelled to Salisbury together to carry out the attack, aided by a third agent, Sergey Fedotov, an alias for GRU officer Denis Sergeev.

Petrov’s real identity was believed to be Alexander Mishkin, who was a doctor for the GRU.

Boshirov’s 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 a poison dart frog toxin.