Moscow says it’s absurd to blame Russia for the Novichok fatality in Great Britain

Detectives in Great Britain have launched a murder investigation, following the July 8 death of 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess, who was exposed to the nerve agent Novichok in Amesbury, Wiltshire. She leaves behind her family, including three children. A 45-year-old man hospitalized with Ms. Sturgess is still in critical condition.

“There is no evidence that they visited any of the sites that were decontaminated following the attempted murders of Sergey and Yulia Skripal in March this year. We are not in a position to say whether the nerve agent was from the same batch that the Skripals were exposed to,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Sunday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov shared Moscow’s condolences regarding the death of Sturgess, saying that Moscow “remains deeply concerned about the continuing appearances of toxic agents on British soil,” calling it a security threat to all Europeans. Peskov said any suggestion that Russia was somehow involved with the incident in Amesbury would be “absurd.”