bloody and lucrative world of caviar smuggling, has been run over and killed in a suspected contract killing.

Russia’s only “sniffer cat”, hailed for its successes in the campaign against the bloody and lucrative world of caviar smuggling, has been run over and killed in a suspected contract killing.

After wandering in to a customs checkpoint as a stray kitten last year, Rusik soon became the scourge of the Stavropol region’s mafia by hunting out caviar being smuggled from the Caspian Sea to Moscow, and on towards the lucrative Western market.

Rusik’s prowess was made public last week. It proved to be a fatal error. Now Rusik is dead, mown down by a car in which he had once discovered smuggled sturgeon.

Rusik’s demise was just the latest blow to Stavropol’s crime-fighters. Another cat, Barsik, succumbed a few weeks ago after eating a poisoned mouse.