Help me out here. You think professional hit men kill witnesses?
I dunno rudeboy, just a wild guess but if one plans on getting away with it and keeping any possible conspiracy/connections covert, yes. I would assume most in that line of work do not want witnesses or things like video cameras around.
Are you suggesting witnesses to murders for hire are good thing for the career murderers?
???
A few theories:
Could be either way, IF they wanted to send a message. Since, as I said before, it wasn't just murder, but appears to be an execution.
At best, the Ukrainian girl, with whom he had a child, had nothing to do with it.
At worst, she was bought off; it really isn't unusual for Russians or Ukrainians women & men to have kid(s), out of wedlock, and not necessarily be solely attached to one partner.
Re: the message, from the assassin(s), can range from "we don't have anything against a politically inactive woman, ie his Ukrainian girlfriend".. to... "Ukrainians shouldn't mix with Russians or vice versa"... to .. "we just focus on the main target, not their inconsequential lover"... to... "let the girlfriend who witnessed it suffer from shock/trauma" ... to.. "since he is with his Ukrainian girlfriend, his murder may just look like a Russian or Ukrainian [govt] job"...
OR, maybe, it was just a sloppy job on the part of the assassin(s)..
Can the witness, in this instance, ID the assassin(s)? I'm betting she can't.
However, I still think the fact that he was executed in front of his Ukrainian girlfriend, while leaving her unharmed, is significant.