The killing, sources confirm, was clinical. A single shot to the head, fired at close range, in a suburb of a major European capital. The victim: a well-known Kremlin critic.
The suspected orchestrator: the Russian state. MI5 is now monitoring the situation closely. Not because the murder happened in London.
It didn't. But because of what it signals. A ratcheting up.
A willingness to go further, to take risks, that even the old Cold War spooks would have raised an eyebrow at. Watch your backs. The game has changed.
