Mr Skripal said: “I believe Putin makes all important decisions himself. I therefore think he must have at least given permission for the attack on Yulia and me.
“Any GRU (Russian Federation) commander taking a decision like this without Putin’s permission would have been severely punished.”
Mr O’Connor also said that Jonathan Allen, a senior Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office official, provided the inquiry with a statement in which he said it is the Government’s view that Putin “authorised the operation”.
The inquiry will look into whether the UK authorities took appropriate precautions in early 2018 to protect Mr Skripal from being attacked.
Mr O’Connor said the fact that Mr Skripal was a former senior GRU officer living in the UK “arguably placed him at some risk”.
He added that Mr Skripal recognised this himself in a police interview in 2018, in which he said: “I am a very important man of special services.
“Still now I know a lot of Russian secrets, top secrets, they are really dangerous for Russian special services.”
The inquiry will also examine whether the poisoning of Ms Sturgess could have been prevented.
The inquiry will sit for a number of weeks, moving between Salisbury and London. A final report is expected in 2025.
