Putin's a monster, but he's not stupid. He is being very aggressive at testing the limits of what he can get away with but there is zero chance that he will intentionally start a nuclear war or other "massive war". It's possible that he might start some trouble that spirals out of control, but that's not a danger limited to N.K. or Russia.

Russia is just a leftwing boogeyman. I realize that's not a popular thing to say on here on this site. But that's the way I see it.

I also concur with Final Fan, Russia wont start WW3 or a massive war, if anything it will be us, the united states, who instigates the start of it

I don't know, but if they want to assassinate Russians living in other countries maybe don't be so obvious about it

Tell that to Ukraine...

The point of using a nerve agent rather than, say, arranging a freak car accident is to let people know Russia was behind it. Russia will of course deny it for the sake of international relations, but it sends the implicit message to any would be double agents that there's nowhere to flee, no country capable of keeping them safe.

^ being obvious about it was the point.
Its to send a message to their own intelligence officers, saying you cant defect, or tell secrets or eventually we ll get you.

Russia is more than capable of doing such a "hit" without it in any way leading back to them.
Just as the USA is,... and probably does from time to time.

^ this.
Not sure why russia is always made out to be the bad guy / boogeyman.

If the news was about americans being behinde a "hit" of some double agent, the comments in the forum would most likely be like "glad they got him" ect.

Well I'm sure the nationality of the commentator has atleast something to do with it... Sometimes. Surely if you go onto a forum that is predominantly Russian there'll be atleast a few comments saying 'glad we got him' right?

Not if it was a double agent that retired 10 years ago and his daughter.  (I had the impression that the daughter was also specifically targeted, or was she collateral damage?) 

I mean I don't even know how you square "why are they saying russia is a bad guy" with "well of course it's obvious russia did it, the whole point was to make a horrible example of him".  You make Putin sound like a mob boss. 

Russia has been very effectively neutralised by a concerted effort to encourage former USSR states to join the EU expansion project. Throw a bit of money at Ukraine and Belarus and maybe more bits will leave. Chechnya and Georgia next?

Although Russia has a large land mass, its population is only a little more than 120million. They could easily be defeated by two EU countries.

I thought the policy was unfair, I guess I was wrong. Whatever.