Two men were sitting across from each other in a busy café in St Petersburg when one of them pulled out a handgun and shot the other at point-blank range. Customers screamed and the victim fell to the floor. The gunman stood up and fired several more shots into his head. He then went back to his table to continue eating.
Police arrived and the gunman surrendered without a struggle. He was identified as Alexei Isakov, a convicted robber who had been released from prison in exchange for agreeing to fight in Ukraine. Reports said the man he had shot dead was a business associate who owed him money.
The cold-blooded killing was only the latest in a wave of murders and other violent crimes
