This week’s events, though not officially linked to Russia, bear hallmarks of the deaths of other Russians killed on foreign soil, including Leon Trotsky (top right) and Alexander Litvinenko

After the death of Stalin, a letter was found under a newspaper in his desk drawer. Written in 1950, it was from Marshal Tito, the independent-minded Yugoslav communist leader who had consistently enraged Stalin by refusing to do as he was told. It read: “Stalin, stop sending assassins to murder me. We have already caught five, one with a bomb, another with a rifle. If you don’t stop sending killers, I will send one to Moscow and there will be no need to send another. Tito.”

Marshal Tito wrote to Stalin demanding he stop sending assassins to kill him ZIKA MILUTINOVIC/REUTERS

Assassination was integral to Stalin’s foreign policy. The Great Terror of the 1930s, aimed at eliminating all opposition, extended far beyond the borders of the Soviet Union to include anyone considered an “enemy of the people”, anywhere in the