From Russia With Blood

The US is currently embroiled in a scandal involving allegations of improper links between the Trump Administration and Russia. Some say it could even cost him his position as president. But what if your connections to Russia could cost you your life?

In 2007, the Russian intel agency known as the FSB likely assassinated Alexander Litvinenko, a former agent, using the radioactive isotope Polonium 210 in London. This assassination caused massive international outrage and a near permanent downgrade in relations between Russia and the UK. It was even suggested Putin himself had ordered the hit.

However, this was not the end of the story. Over the next few years, almost a dozen other people connected to a failed development project in Moscow died — from suicide, freak accidents, or seemingly natural causes. In every case, the UK police ruled the deaths as non-suspicious, while behind their backs the UK's spy agencies as well as those in the US conducted their own investigations into these deaths with the strong belief that they were assassinations carried out by the Russian government. It was believed that these deaths were the result of the involvement of a dissident oligarch in the development project.

While the deaths occurred over a decade, this article by BuzzFeed News takes a deep dive into many of the individual people involved, explaining their backstories and the often gruesome ways in which they met their end. Reading like a spy thriller, it contains extensive information from private investigators, grieving children, crusading ex-wives and intelligence agencies. Throughout its length, it raises a very real and concerning possibility — that the UK government may itself be covering up assassinations in order to avoid future political incidents.