I'm not sure I understand what happened here.
Did they arrest someone who was hired to kill him? What was the point of this?
Did they arrest someone who was hired to kill him? What was the point of this?
Was he not actually shot? Was he even shot at? Him being found by his wife dead and bloody, did this happen?
I don't understand this at all.
Then it wasn't really going to fool Russia, they hadn't attacked him. Was it an attempt to influence Western countries?
That's not supported by what we know.
It's not uncommon for people to get caught hiring hitmen that turn out to be undercover police. That may be what happened here.
edit: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44307611 states:
> Mr Hrytsak alleged that Russian security services had recruited a Ukrainian citizen to find hitmen within the country. He said the citizen approached several acquaintances, including war veterans, offering $30,000 for the contract killing, one of whom revealed the plot to the security services.
Blanks, blood squib, cooperative ambulance crew, report back with "mission successful" and see what sort of activity happens at the Russian embassy.
It's not clear why they faked his death, but apparently it led to something happening.
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/30/russian-journa...
They have arrested someone who paid to kill the journalist.
The “assassin” was an undercover Ukrainian agent, and he’s gonna be one of the key witnesses in the criminal case that will follow.
Or if the disposable and deniable hitman was employed, and the agent himself was out of their reach for whatever reason. They may have wanted to intercept him, and have their own man to reach Russian agent once the execution order was "fulfilled"