[foobarian]

I'm no assassin but wonder how someone could fail to kill someone with poison. Aren't there a million deadly choices out there that would do the job reliably? Is the FSB security apparatus this incompetent?

[fsloth]

Yes.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/12/21/europe/russia-navalny-poi...

But could be warning as well, ofc. The point is, we don’t know. Whatever the outcome, it’s a show of force.

[foobarian]

I guess it's better not to have a body, since it keeps things uncertain and doesn't give law enforcement cause to get involved.

[Paradigma11]

I think its a mixture of incompetence, micromanaging (you need to use very inappropriate radioactive or chemical warfare agents like Novitchok) and indifference (since terror is a major goal).

Here are elite GRU assassins giving an interview to support their cover story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZatub49aIA

[invalidname]

Not an expert, just guessing.

In the past they used radioactive poisoning which is pretty easy to trace back and caused collateral damage. That's problematic. Poison is very dependent on dosage and delivery without compromising the agent might be tricky.

[tim333]

There seem to be a lot of people who survive. Navally, the Skipals.

And Russia I think is the only country with a government poisoning lab and policy to do this stuff? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_laboratory_of_the_Sovie...