The threat of political assassination is not new to Russia. From Ivan the Terrible’s Oprichniki secret police, dressed in black garbs and the insignia of a severed dog’s head, to the shadow of Stalin’s feared NKVD agents, political opponents to the Moscow regime have long lived their lives in terror.
Today, the methods of control and coercion of opposition are more sophisticated. But the attitude towards those considered traitors remains largely the same.
