>Alexey wasn't a popular politic figure in past time, I believe that his peak of popularity was in 2013-2015. He was banned from being a politician. Banned fro

>Alexey wasn't a popular politic figure in past time, I believe that his peak of popularity was in 2013-2015. He was banned from being a politician. Banned from media with any kind of reach, banned from elections. And we don't know how popular or not he actually is -- in a country like Russia accuracy of polling, any kind of statistics that is threatening to the dictator is one of the first victims. >Third, I think no one here is actually benefiting from this tragic event... A ridiculous statement. It's a signal to those who oppose Putin. In the light of what is happening in Belarus the signal is pretty clear -- Putin won't tolerate any real opposition, and he will not allow the situation to deteriorate to the level where he's actually threatened. "If you are willing to oppose Putin we will poison you with invisible deadly substances, and state doctors whose careers completely depend on their superiors won't treat you" is what it conveys. The goal is to have a chilling effect on the opposition's activities. >simple approaches Simple approaches are not as good for conveying a message. Using Chechens from Kadyrov's personal guard(in case of Nemtsov), expensive and hard to obtain isotope(in case of Litvinenko), or chemical warfare agents (in cases of Kara-Murza, Verzilov, Navalny, Skripal) indicates that's it's a state poisoning/killing, something only the state can do. It asks those who are not yet poisoned a question "Are you willing to fight the state/regime who's willing to kill you, make you disabled? It's rather surprising that the regime doesn't yet target family members. Although I'm not completely up to date on the subject. Maybe it already does.