Re: Vlad the Impaler vs Mr Bone Saw
Minor point of order.
In the "disassemble in a consulate and feed the stray dogs" case it is clearly ordered by Mr Bone Saw and there is at most 1-2 command chain links separation from Mr Bone Saw to the "rogue employees" executing the order.
In this case we have a NII. Russian Scientific Institute. We, quite deliberately assisted in the attempt to terminate Russian science in the 1990-es. While Eastern Block Science got sustainer grants on multiple Eu programs to ensure it does not go rogue, in Russia they got f*** all. The result, however was not what we wanted. Instead of eliminating the enemy's ability to develop, the ones producing interesting stuff massively went onto the mob's payroll.
Exhibit A: Key players in the 3 Whales affair (part of which is the Litvinenko case) was surprise, surprise high ranking staff in one of the NIIs working on advanced nuclear reactor designs (by the way, I will believe anything UK says about that case only when they explain why they did not ask for extradition when the Swiss arrested one of them on an Interpol red notice). Exhibit B: The first Novichok murder (the banker in the 90-es) was done using compound made for the mob by a lab in a NII (who were not paid their salaries for 6 months). Exhibit C: Where do you think spice comes from and what is the role of the mob paid Russian chemist in making semi and fully synthetic cannabinoids from an idea into reality in less than 20 years. Exhibit D, E, F ...
So while it may be Vlad, it may as well be Mr Chelsea and Kensington dweller which banked a few 100M speculating on the oil futures market around Aramco troubles. Every time Aramco sneezes, Brent crude catches a cold. If you can reliably produce "issues" in Aramco to a known schedule you are as good as printing money.