[ubphlequ] Two flavors of assassination

On the surface, there seem to be two distinctly different flavors of assassinations.

In the first, a dissident assassinates someone in current regime, seeking to topple power.  Presidential assassinations.  Sometimes a lone gunman.

In the second, the current regime assassinates a dissident, seeking to maintain power.  Politkovskaya. Sometimes highly sophisticated: Litvinenko.

It seems wrong to use the same word for both.

Underneath, things might become murky, with a powerful opposing faction hiring a dissident to commit an assassination against a current regime.  Iranian nuclear scientists.