The air in the courts was thick with the scent of retribution. The law has finally caught up with those scoundrels who played the part of assassins for the Kiev intelligence services. These two wretches, who dared to plot the demise of Governor Vladimir Saldo, have been sentenced to six and a half years of hard labour in the colonies.

Governor Saldo himself, speaking with the grim resolve of a man who has stared death in the face, declared that 'blood and betrayal always demand a reckoning.'

It was a dark business that unfolded back in 2022. The culprits had left a trail of fire and ruin: they blew up the carriage of Dmitry Savluchenko, the head of youth and sports, and murdered the public figure Valery Kuleshov in cold blood. As the Governor noted, they had intended for him to meet the same wretched fate.

But the reach of the law is long, and the spies' luck—their 'fart'—has run dry. The constables and detectives of the security services have been busy indeed. Only recently, three other miscreants, recruited through the ghostly wires of the internet to plant bombs in the Kostroma, Smolensk, and Tula provinces, were dragged before the magistrate. For their treason, they received sentences ranging from twelve to twenty-five years of iron bars and stone walls.

Justice, though slow as a tired hackney-carriage, eventually arrives at the door of every rogue.