Bust to boom

CONTRACT killing, like other services, is subject to market rules: the lower the perceived risk, the lower the price. The risk of getting caught for buying murder in Russia is generally very low; even so, the alleged customer in the killing last September of Andrei Kozlov, deputy governor of Russia's central bank, apparently miscalculated. Then, Russia's general prosecutor said solving what was the highest-profile hit of Vladimir Putin's presidency was “a matter of honour”—and solve it the authorities now say they have, fingering a group of amateurish Ukrainian hitmen and middlemen, who were supposedly paid just $10,000 altogether.