In October 2014, the Washington Post openly speculated that Russia was responsible for spreading Ebola.

So in the spirit of speculation, and especially considering that no less than four top Russian diplomats have dropped dead in the last two months, we would like to share a rough chronology of all the "tragic accidents" and straight-up assassinations that have happened to — or been blamed on — Russia.

We did not attempt to list all the things that Russia has been blamed for over the last two years — ranging from Brexit to killer squids. This is strictly a body count.

July 17, 2014: MH17 is shot down over East Ukraine, killing all 298 on board. Russia is immediately blamed. The tragedy came at a time when, according to the BBC, Putin “had joined Germany and France in a diplomatic effort to promote a political settlement within Ukraine that would also take Russia’s interests into account” and “the Obama Administration’s attempts to rally the Europeans around the sanctions agenda appeared largely ineffectual.” A stalled, deeply flawed and biased investigation eventually concluded that a Russian-made BUK missile took down the plane — but declined to assign blame to a specific actor. Aside from derailing a European-led peace settlement in Ukraine, the tragedy also sparked the ongoing sanctions war between Russia and the west.

February 27, 2015: Russian opposition figure and activist Boris Nemtsov is gunned down just a short walk from Red Square. Although described by the media as "a driving force of Russia's opposition movement", only 45% of Russians recognized his name; of those 45%, only 1% "trusted" him. Putin was accused of personally ordering Nemtsov's murder, although it's still unclear why Putin would need a political nobody to be gunned down in front of the Kremlin for a perfect anti-Russia photo op. The European Union then doubles down on its anti-Russia policy dictated by Washington.

April 16, 2015: Influential Ukrainian journalist Oles Buzina, known for his pro-Russian views, is assassinated in Kiev. Putin described Buzina's murder as a "political assassination".

May 23, 2015: Luhansk rebel leader Aleksey Mozgovoy is assassinated in East Ukraine. His murder came just a few months after the Minsk II protocols were put in place, raising suspicions that the fragile agreement would be sabotaged.

October 31, 2015: A bomb planted on a Russian passenger jet explodes shortly after takeoff from Sharm El Sheikh International Airport, Egypt, killing all 224 people on board. The attack is later attributed to "terrorists" retaliating against Russia's air campaign in Syria, which began just one month prior.

November 25, 2015: A Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet shoots down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M near the Syria–Turkey border. One Russian pilot is killed. The attack came two months after Moscow announced that it would help Assad and the Iranians push ISIS and western-backed "moderate rebels" out of Syria. Years of goodwill between the two countries, especially in economic cooperation, vaporizes overnight. Most analysts agree that the shootdown was not possible without prior approval from NATO and Washington.

January 21, 2016: Sir Robert Owen's inquiry into the 2006 death of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko concludes that his murder was "probably" approved by Putin. The report provides no evidence to back up this flimsy "probability".

October 16, 2016: Donetsk rebel leader Arsen Pavlov, aka "Motorola", is assassinated.

November 8, 2016: Sergei Krivov, duty commander of the Russian Consulate in New York, is found dead with an "unidentified head wound".

December 20, 2016: Petr Polshikov, the chief adviser to the Latin American department at the Russian Foreign Minister, is shot dead in his apartment in Moscow.

December 20, 2016: Andrey Karlov, Russian ambassador to Turkey, is shot dead in Ankara by a "Turkish police officer" who claimed his motivation was to seek vengence for "Russian crimes" in Aleppo — which had been liberated by Syrian, Iranian and Russian forces six days prior.

December 25, 2016: 92 people are killed in a plane crash near Sochi. The plane was carrying members of the famous Alexandrov Ensemble, who were headed to Syria to perform for Russian troops. Journalists and a prominent charity worker were also killed in the crash.

January 9, 2017: Andrei Malanin, a senior diplomat at Russia's embassy in Athens, is found dead on his bathroom floor. Cause of death still unknown.

January 26, 2017: Alexander Kadakin, Russia's ambassador to India since 2009, and who played a key role in fostering better economic and political cooperation between Moscow and New Delhi (see: BRICS), died "after a brief illness".

February 8, 2017: Donetsk rebel leader Mikhail Tolstykh, aka "Givi", is assassinated. His death comes as Washington declares 2017 the year Ukraine will go on the "offensive" against Russia.