An alleged commissioned murder of a local Russian official went wrong when the hitman preferred to get paid 5 bitcoins and disclose his paymaster because he “did not feel like killing.” 

According to what Yuri Kvasha, mayor of Telman township, told the Rosbalt news agency, the man hired to assassinate him offered to give up the identity of the person who commissioned his killing:

“Yesterday about 5:30 pm I received an SMS from an unknown number with a link to an Internet page. I followed the link and saw that my assassination had been commanded and the hitman had already received an advance payment of $3,500. The total sum would be $10,000 but the hitman said he did not feel like executing the command and was ready to share information about his customer for five bitcoins.”

Telman township, with a population of 14,000, is located in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. Local activists fight against corruption in local public utility service and for the closing of a highly toxic refuse damp. Kvasha, who has been supporting the campaigns, believes that one of these controversial issues could be connected with his attempted murder.

However, the fact that he does not seem to be sure which of his activities is involved here may indicate that he actually did not pay the ransom.

Alexey Tereshchenko