My late father worked all his life at a research institute where Novichok poison was developed (not by him). When the stories of FSB assassinations using the chemical broke out, he was incredulous. “The people who invented it are all dead,” he said, “and there’s no way FSB goons can synthesize it properly.”
He was later proven right. Many of the dozens of poisonings attempted by the FSB in recent years (some apparently for no reason other than filling a quota) were unsuccessful. So it looks like the FSB has gone back to its all-time favorite method: staged hit-and-runs by cars or trucks. They first tried it in 1948, killing a famous actor and the designated poster Jew of the Soviet Union Solomon Mikhoels. They also staged car accidents to frame people (most recently, another famous actor, Michail Efremov).
Four days ago they killed a poet, Lev Rubinshtein. At 77 he was still too smart to buy into Putin’s propaganda, but, like many older Russians, he’d been indoctrinated into believing that leaving his deranged motherland was somehow morally wrong. He had the option of moving to Israel but failed to use it and paid for it with his life.
Many other Russians who don’t like being Putin’s slaves are also patiently waiting for their turn to be slaughtered. But, unlike Rubinstein, they don’t have the excuse of old age. They are just dumb, and it’s difficult not to think that they deserve their inevitable fate.
Naturalist on Earth 