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Putin (well, not just him personally) is going through great lengths to silence Alexey Navalny, by placing him in solitary confinement frequently and for long stretches, or most recently, by transferring him to an even more remote prison camp (making him "disappear" completely for 2 weeks in the process). Still, Navalny is able to communicate and send messages to the outside world through his lawyers. Why is Putin not able to silence him completely?

Navalny has been treated "unfair" for a while now, and the Russian system has acted legally correctly only superficially:

  • The Russian Government denies involvement in Navalny's poisoning with Novichok officially, however it is hard to not see the connection.
  • I am only a casual observer here, but his trials appear unfair (I am missing the proper juridical term here).
  • His treatment in the prison camps seems very arbitrary, with putting him in solitary confinement without explanation, ....

After all of this arbitrary treatment, what is stopping Putin from simply making Navalny disappear in a solitary cell forever, or have a fatal "accident" happen to him? How would that be different than, for example, the attempted poisoning?

DominikS
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    Why? Does Navalny say anything insightful or disrupts Putin's policy in any significant way? Is he hugely popular and not divisive? Imagine that you get rid of him and more efficient Navalny 2.0 comes along - how is that a win? – alamar Jan 06 '24 at 21:23
  • Well, he and his group still seem to bother Putin. And it is not clear how much (or little) Putin actually feels threatened, see also this post. I mean, why bother locking up Nawalny at all, if he is no disruption? A lot of action has been taken against Navalny that suggests that he (or people like him) are considered a threat... – DominikS Jan 06 '24 at 21:25
  • Perhaps Navalny and his group take place of people who could be a serious bother to Putin if the place was free for the taking. Navalny's group are just not efficient. Volkov is mediocre and looks like FSB. Pevchikh looks like a British spy but in fact mediocre. The rest are even worse. – alamar Jan 06 '24 at 21:36
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    Putin could easily silence him completely. The better question is why he doesn't. Probably he doesn't want to create a martyr. – NoDataDumpNoContribution Jan 06 '24 at 21:48
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    Putin is probably making an example of him. It's a show don't tell kind of thing that dictators do to silence opposition. If he kills him fast, then possible opposition also forgets fast that he died and how dangerous Putin is so they will gain courage to rise up again. – Ccm Jan 06 '24 at 22:02
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    Apparently, he is able now. – alamar Feb 16 '24 at 11:30
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    This question kind of gets answered by history. – NoDataDumpNoContribution Feb 16 '24 at 15:44

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