That being said, this case makes me wonder if political assassinations also occur in Western politics, or if the killing of dissidents is mostly an Eastern Bloc thing.
Why would you poison somebody with polonium of all things, if not to send a message "don't defect or else"?
If "they" wanted him gone quietly almost all other solutions are cheaper, easier and less risky than polonium. Starting with organising a car accident.
BTW why wrtie "eastern block" if you only have example from 1 country (namely Russia)?
It's not like eastern block countries are similar to each other (except for 50 years of history ending 25 years ago). Compare Belarus, Estonia, Moldova and Czech Republic - completely different cultures, political systems.
>This seems more like spycraft than a politically motivated assassination.
Spies are rarely killed. They're traded for spies. Life isn't a Jame Bond movie. This, on the other hand, is clearly a politically motivated killing from a dictator known for it as well as annexing land and arbitrarily invading countries with unmarked troops.
>That being said, this case makes me wonder if political assassinations also occur in Western politics
More whataboutism when Russia comes up in the news? Color me unsurprised.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/yasser-arafat-probably-poisoned-...
That was most probably a "western" nation state at work too.
I think you mean:
* he helped capture and execute two soldiers
I'm not sure why one person working in military/intelligence being killed is a "political assassination" while the other one being killed is not.
Well if that's not good enough, here's another Mossad piece of work, a Moroccan waiter with no political involvement at all gunned down by the Mossad in Norway - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillehammer_affair
Capture is fine. Summary execution of POWs is a war crime.
> I'm not sure why one person working in military/intelligence being killed is a "political assassination" while the other one being killed is not.
My point is: neither one was a political assassination.
> Well if that's not good enough, here's another Mossad piece of work, a Moroccan waiter with no political involvement at all gunned down by the Mossad in Norway - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillehammer_affair
Again, not a political assassination (as you said, he had no political involvement). That's an outright fuckup.