[hax0ron3]

I'm not claiming that Putin is acting irrationally, at least not any more irrationally than other leaders - after all, politicians are still human.

My question is why Navalny would have believed that it would not be rational for Putin to kill him.

Lenin entered Russia at a more advantageous moment than Navalny did. The February Revolution had already happened. The government was new. Navalny, in contrast, entered a Russia in which the government was stable and had been around for a long time.

[thatsamejew2]

He returned to Russia, as I just checked, in January 2021. The sanctions were already working, rouble was devaluating, the country was perceived to bow to western pressure, Ukraine was steadily preparing to enter Donbass and eventually take Crimea (yes, I know your media did not tell you that, but this was the end goal they had in mind, with western support of course). What is so stable about this situation?

[hax0ron3]

That seems like a possible answer.

You don't need to assume that I've been brainwashed by Western propaganda. I generally distrust both the Western and the Russian mainstream narratives about geopolitics.