LONDON — Russian President Vladimir Putin was “morally responsible” for the 2018 Novichok poisonings which led to the death of an innocent British woman, an official inquiry concluded Thursday.

Dawn Sturgess died in July 2018 after spraying herself with a perfume bottle that contained the Russian nerve agent Novichok in the English city of Salisbury. The bottle had been a gift from her then partner Charlie Rowley.

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were attacked with the nerve agent four months earlier.

Anthony Hughes, who chaired the public inquiry into Sturgess’ death, said the attack was “expected to stand as a public demonstration of Russian power” and “amounted to a public statement, both for international and domestic consumption, that Russia will act decisively in what it regards are its own interests.”

He said there were “failings” to adequately protect the Skripals, but acknowledged CCTV cameras, alarms or hidden bugs would not have stopped a “professionally mounted attack with a nerve agent.”

The government believes the Russian president personally approved the poisoning on Skripal. The ex-Russian spy lived in an easily accessible property and declined the offer of CCTV.

In a statement following publication of the report, Hughes said Sturgess’ death was “needless and arbitrary. She was the entirely innocent victim of the cruel and cynical acts of others.”

He said: “I’ve concluded that the operation to assassinate Sergei Skripal must have been authorized at the highest level, indeed, by President Putin.”

The U.K. government on Thursday said it has sanctioned the Russian military intelligence agency (GRU) in its entirety, and summoned Russian Ambassador to the U.K. Andrey Kelin.

The public inquiry began in Salisbury last year more than six years after Sturgess’ death, which also left 80 other people in hospital. Nobody has been charged with Sturgess’ murder.

Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga were named as the suspects responsible for deploying the nerve agent in Salisbury, but returned to Russia before they could be captured.

They were charged with conspiracy to murder, three counts of attempted murder, two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, and one count of use or possession of a chemical weapon. But those charges related to the attacks on the Skripals rather than Sturgess’ death.