As Russian hitmen strike in London, we investigate LIFE IS CHEAP IN WILL GET SOMEONE KILLED...

WHEN Barry George was finally cleared of killing TV presenter Jill Dando, fingers once again pointed at Serbian assassins.

Investigators claim she had upset warlord Slobodan Milosevic and was killed by a Serbian hitman in revenge.

The theory was first floated in the days after she was gunned down outside of her London home.

But they were dismissed as far-fetched and instead police focused on weirdo Barry George who was eventually cleared in 2008.

Now Eastern European hitmen are a common occurrence on the streets of London and the theory is accepted as fact.

In November 2006, Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko was murdered in London.

Unsuspecting

British prosecutors have named his fellow EX-KGB agent Andrei Lugovy as the main suspect in his poisoning with deadly radioactive polonium-210.

It’s thought he tapped a few drops of the liquid killer into unsuspecting Litvineko’s cup of tea.

Lugovy is also said to have strong ties to the Kremlin.

And Russian authorities have repeatedly refused to send him to face trial in the UK.

But it’s not just political enemies – after the shooting of Gorbunstov, the hundreds of Russian oligarchs who now live in the capital are living in fear.

They say the Eastern European mobs responsible for the attack have no fear of British police and act as if they are in Moscow.

“Everybody is trying to figure out who their enemies might be,” said Yevgeny Chichvarkin, a business tycoon who fled to London in 2008 after falling out with the Russian government.

“You know, if they want to kill me, they’ll kill me,” added Chichvarkin, whose mother died in mysterious circumstances in Moscow in 2010.

But it’s not just the Russians and the Serbians – with much of the world’s financial crime having a link in some way to London, there is no escape.

A police serious crime investigator revealed: “It used to be that London was like a safe haven, it was where the deals were done but every thing was sorted out elsewhere.

“London was considered too secure to do any serious crime but now with the Eastern European gangs taking over they are willing to do anything, anywhere.

“They have no fear.” A RICH Russian gunned down on the streets of London lies in a coma with armed guards at his hospital door, proof the murder for hire is rife in Britain.

Banker German Gorbuntsov, 45, was targeted two weeks ago for pointing the finger at the assassins who t ried t o kill of Moscow oligarch Alexander Antonov.

Mr Antonov, 61 – dad to former Portsmouth FC owner Vladimir Antonov – lost the use of an arm in the botched attempt on his life in Moscow in 2009.

Three Chechen men were later convicted of attempted murder – but the mastermind was never identified.

Police believe Mr Gorbuntsov knows the truth, and that’s why he was gunned down after stepping out of a taxi at his apartment block in swanky Canary Wharf at around 7pm.

Information

It was the moment the brutal Russian gang warfare came to Britain.

Mr Antonov said: “He had some information about how it was prepared and wanted to pass it on, that’s it.

“Perhaps because the people who did it were scared of this information getting publicly