• Miles O'Brien
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    219 hours ago

    I always see people commenting on stories like this with things like “how does anyone actually believe that/think anyone will believe that?”

    Well, that’s exactly the point. It’s not about the death being convincingly accidental. It’s very much about sending a message to others.

    You don’t eliminate the competition and agitators with the exact same method of execution for 30+ years (with a few false-flag apartment bombings thrown in for good measure) and expect to keep things covert.

    The only way they could make it more obvious is the “he hogtied himself, ate a cyanide capsule, jumped out the window and shot himself twice in the back of the head on the way down” trope.

      • @[email protected]
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        66 hours ago

        Putin has been in power for 25 years. He arguably has more enemies than anyone else on the planet. I’d say the deterrent factor is pretty strong with this one.

        It’s not perfect though. When you’re destroying your own country with the most disastrous war in living memory then you need stronger deterrents.

      • @[email protected]
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        8 hours ago

        In some cases, the people in power change their minds and suddenly an oligarch who was compliant becomes a target.

    • @[email protected]
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      16 hours ago

      Exactly. They don’t have a signature poison because they don’t want people to know what happened