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Russia ordered a killing that made no sense. Then the assassin started talking

By Michael Schwirtz
New York Times·
16 mins to read
Russia ordered a killing that made no sense. Then the assassin started talking
The headstone of Ivan Mamchur, a Ukrainian prison guard and veteran who was murdered in Rivne, a city in western Ukraine. Photo / Joseph Sywenkyj, New York Times

The target lived on the sixth floor of a cheerless, salmon-coloured building on Vidinska Street, across from a thicket of weeping willows. Oleg Smorodinov found him there, rented a small apartment on the ground floor, and waited.

He had gotten the name from his two handlers in Moscow. They met

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