$25,000 was the price on a critic’s life.

A stranger, not an officer, would have carried the risk and the passport.

A former Russia intelligence officer, Yuri Khrameev, allegedly hired a US citizen to kill someone accused of “telling lies about Russia,” prosecutors say.

The Justice Department’s case rests on murder-for-hire charges, not espionage, since no state officer is in custody.

Sources: Bloomberg Business