KILLING OPENLY. It’s surprising that Stevenson takes the position that the Skripal poisoning “led back to Russia too readily….The agents involved were photographed dozens of times travelling from London to Wiltshire and both ended up with their cover blown.”
The CIA handbook for covert political murder classifies assassinations according to whether the killing needs to be secret or must be seen to be an assassination”. Rather than incompetence, it seems more likely that this is a crime that should be classified as one where the killing “must be seen to be an assassination”. The Russians wanted to be identified as the authors of the crime, to send a message that they can kill with impunity..