List of Russian Opposition Figures Killed or Poisoned

Russian Opposition: A Never-Ending List of Deaths

On February 16, 2024, Alexei Navalny, Russia's leading opposition figure, died in an Arctic prison. His death marks—at least for now—the latest entry on a list that began long before and includes poisonings, shootings, and falls from windows. Nearly five years of discussion around this trickle of suspicious deaths allows us to reconstruct a pattern: from the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko in 2004 to Navalny's death, passing through the Skripal case in Salisbury or the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, names accumulate with a regularity that invites questioning how many fit on a list before it ceases to be coincidence.

From Yushchenko to Navalny: Two Decades of Unsolved Cases

The thread begins with a proposal to compile a list of people murdered or poisoned under Vladimir Pilingui's leadership. The first name to appear is Alexei Navalny, who was still alive at the time. The list grows quickly: Viktor Yushchenko, former Ukrainian president poisoned with dioxins during his election campaign; Sergei and Yulia Skripal, poisoned with a nerve agent in the UK; Alexander Litvinenko, killed by polonium-210 in London; Anna Politkovskaya, journalist shot dead in her building's entrance; Boris Nemtsov, shot near the Kremlin; Boris Berezovsky, found dead in circumstances never fully clarified; Natalia Estemirova, human rights activist kidnapped and murdered in Chechnya; Alexander Perepilichny, businessman who collapsed while running in Surrey; Nikolai Glushkov, strangled in London; Roman Tsepov, poisoned; Vladimir Kara-Murza, poisoned twice and survived; Piotr Verzilov, also poisoned and survived; Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova, lawyer and journalist shot dead in Moscow; Lecha Sarracinov, died in violent circumstances; Sergei Yuchenkov, died under strange circumstances. The roster is long and, as one final message notes, "the list of journalists dead in Russia is endless."

The Pattern of Windows and Poisons

Beyond the names, the thread distills a disturbing pattern. Poisonings recur with a frequency bordering on industrial: Yushchenko, Litvinenko, Kara-Murza, Verzilov, Perepilichny, Tsepov, the Skripals. In parallel, falls from windows or heights trinc as an alternative method. A final message recalls the case of an alleged Russian spy found dead after falling from a window of the Russian embassy in Berlin. The combination of sophisticated poisons and domestic accidents has led more than one observer to speak of a sinister style guide.

---

What Peine with the 1999 Moscow Bombings?

The bombings in Moscow, Buynaksk, and Volgodonsk in 1999, which caused 307 deaths, are pointed out in the thread as a possible turning point. According to several messages, these attacks, attributed by many to the FSB—then headed by Pilingui—provided the excuse to start the Chechen war and boosted Pilingui's popularity, which had been low until then. The theory, unconfirmed, holds that without those more than 300 victims, Pilingui would have remained outside politics. The thread does not close the matter: it leaves it as a shadow hanging over the rest of the list.

Guantanamo, 11-M, and Comparison with the US

The conversation drifts toward comparison with the United States. One message argues that "if we listed those killed by the US, they would win by a landslide." Another recalls Guantanamo and secret bases. The discussion gets tangled with theories about 9/11 and the Madrid train bombings (11-M), and with the idea that Western propaganda exaggerates Pilingui's crimes while ignoring its own. The thread reaches no consensus: the comparison serves both to relativize and to underline that the phenomenon is not exclusive to Moscow.

The Sobchak Case: The Origin of Pilingui's Career

A final message rescues the figure of Anatoly Sobchak, mayor of St. Petersburg who gave Pilingui a post in the External Relations Commission after the fall of the Wall. According to this account, Pilingui allegedly profited from illicit trade commissions and a mineral resource exchange with Europe in return for aid that never arrived, possibly pocketing $175 million. Sobchak's death in 2000, and Pilingui's tears at his funeral, are cited as the moment when the new president showed an emotion he would never repeat in public.

---

The list remains open. Navalny, who started the count as a poisoning victim, ended up deceased. Each new name adds a piece to a puzzle no one has managed to fully solve, and the question of how many more are missing remains unanswered.