Why a Russian helicopter pilot was shot dead in Spain

Spanish police are investigating whether the Russian mafia and Russian intelligence services could have worked together in the murder of military pilot Maxim Kuzminov, who defected to Ukraine last August after dramatically flying his Mi-8 helicopter across the border from Russia. On 13 February, Kuzminov’s body was found riddled with half a dozen bullets inside a parking garage in the southern town of Villajoyosa, near Alicante. His attackers reportedly escaped in his car afterwards. After being sentenced to death for “treason” in Russia, Kuzminov was living in Spain with a Ukrainian passport issued under a different name. When asked about his murder, Sergei Naryshkin, the director of Russia’s SVR intelligence service, called him “a moral corpse at the very moment when he planned his dirty and terrible crime”. A timely report by a London think tank on “unconventional warfare” by Russia’s security services says that after a rough patch, they’re back with a vengeance.