> 1. Russian leadership would not be able to order that if it will be shot dead. If the political leadership of a nation gets assassinated, I do not think it's

> 1. Russian leadership would not be able to order that if it will be shot dead. If the political leadership of a nation gets assassinated, I do not think it's reasonable to expect the military leadership to sit on their hands forever, waiting for orders from the dead. And if you want to get down to brass tacks, both NATO and Russia have the military capability to literally exterminate the bulk of each other's populations, and I beleive Russia is known to have automated fail-deadly retaliation systems. > 2. NATO towers over Russia for when it comes to size, and quality of elite infantry forces. Honestly, I would think surprise is more important than anything with such an operation as you propose, because success would mainly depend on attacking a target with military-level force that's completely unprepared for that. > 3. The loyalty of Russian military is do low, that the collapse of the military leadership will be near immediate upon news of heads rolling in the Kremlin. Absolutely nobody wants to die for those guys. Maybe not for those people themselves, but they might be willing to die for the nation that those people lead. I'm sure a scheme to assassinate the entire political leadership of a country might evoke some nationalist feelings.