If you haven't heard about how the UK is blaming Russia for an "assassination" on its (the UK's) soil, then you must be living under a rock. Which considering how this situation is bringing us ever closer to a hot war between NATO and Russia, might be a good thing.
Anyway, the deal goes like this, a spy almost died by supposedly being poisoned with a certain nerve agent with ties to Russia. The people who gave us this information are the same ones that claimed Iraq had WMDs and killed babies in incubators, and that it was the Syrian government, not ISIS that used chemical weapons on enemies of ISIS. So you know, take this information with a pound of salt. No, not a grain, a bloody fucking pound.
So, a spy has been assassinated, and instead of being hit by a car, killed in a mugging or terrorist attack with witnesses and other victims, the guy was supposedly poisoned with something that provides a "concrete link" to Russia. Then he was just left laying around waiting to be found.
Now, to those of you who have never been involved in organized crime, intelligence, the military, or frankly, assassinations may think this sounds right. But it isn't.
Far from it in fact. The truth about assassinations is that there are two kinds. War time, and peace time.
War time assassinations are simple, kill the person, fuck how, just do it. Sometimes you even want people to know it was you who was responsible. This creates fear and possibly increases anger, both of which can be useful in war time.
Peace time assassinations. These are also simple, kill the person, avoid being held responsible. The reason you want to avoid being held responsible is so obvious I refuse to spell it out, understand it, figure it out, or fuck off.
The assassination being blamed on Russia at this time is a peacetime assassination, in which the assassin used a poison that leads to Russia, made no attempt to dispose of evidence or conceal the bodies, and also failed to lay false leads. This assassination is a peacetime assassination with every hallmark of a open and in your face wartime assassination, besides the war, and the guilty party taking credit.
If Russia had wanted this guy dead, and didn't want to be blamed for it, increasing sanctions, embargoes, the cause for war, and general fear mongering with benefits everyone except Russia, here is a (far from complete) list of ways they could do it.
- Hire a hitman using slush funds already in place as part of decades long intelligence work.
- Use a deep cover agent to "accidentally" run over the victim with a car.
- Give the victim an illness, then contaminate the medicine given. Nobody looks twice when someone dies due to a medical mistake.
- Fake a terrorist attack. The more victims, the less people look into things.
- Fake a plane or train crash, again, more victims mean less investigation.
And my personal favorite...
- Use a poison that is common in the UK and not a specific Russian made nerve agent.
To sum this up, anyone who believes Russia is responsible is an idiot, and anyone who wants war with Russia is a daft cunt.