The government of Vladimir Putin is a genuine mafia state: Not only does it carry out theft and wanton murder; it exacts revenge on those who embarrass it. Consider a series of indictments handed down by the Justice Department on Thursday morning.

Seven Russian military intelligence officers are accused of hacking, wire fraud, money laundering, and identity theft. One charge particularly stands out: that in April four Russian spies attempted to hack into the networks of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the United Nations chemical weapons watchdog, which has investigated both Russia and its ally Syria in 2018.