When I was in AF intelligence I heard a story. I don’t know if it is true or not, but given the circumstances and the people involved, it could have happened.
In the late 60’s and early 70’s, the Soviets had a bunch of tramp ships that went all over the world with miscellaneous cargo. (Did they have a spy function? I don’t know, I leave that thaught up to you, gentle reader.)
Anyway, they had some problems around the Philippines, where pirates would come out, wave guns around, climb on the ships and steal anything of value they could get into their small boats.
Seems that one time a band of these thieves tried it. They were allowed to climb on board and met with a group of Soviet Naval Special Forces. The pirate boats were sunk with heavy machine-gun fire. The few people on the boats went down with the ships.
The Soviets then lined the pirates up against the railing and proceeded to shoot every two men and threw their bodies overboard. The remaining were told that this would happen again any time a Soviet ship was attacked. They were then tossed overboard and told to swim home and tell their buddies what had happened.
Oh, did I mention that this took place 20 miles or so off the coast? In waters that had sharks?
As I said, this could be an urban legend, but I understand the Soviets never had a pirate problem in that general area again.
‘Nuff said.
Let's not forget that the Soviets also shot a U.S. Army officer in East Germany (Berlin ? ) and left him to bleed to death in the street (pictures were in the papers). They told his driver that if he went to help the officer, he also would be shot.