Why did Putin kill Navalny?

On Friday, Alexey Navalny died (almost certainly killed) in prison. This is a good occasion to debunk some pervasive myths on the mechanics of power.

First, getting rid of Navalny was probably a correct decision on behalf of Kremlin. Execution of this murder may have been suboptimal. Its timing may have been capricious¹. But the very idea to eliminate him was reasonable and makes perfect sense. There is nothing crazy or irrational about it.

This remark may sound as cynical or paradoxical. So let me clarify my position.

Nobody gets rich by accident

Nobody gets famous by accident

And, of course, nobody gets powerful by accident²

Should you ever get powerful by accident, you will lose your power even faster than you got it. (Many such cases). That is because staying in power required a constant effort. To remain in power, you will have to guard you position from all sorts of hungry pretenders.

Guarding power is all about kicking away the ladders. Guarding power = identifying competitors and eliminating them before they could eliminate you. Now once you got the power, guarding the power becomes your main job. That is most of what you do.

(All the other stuff is just the busywork)

Staying in power requires eliminating competitors. Staying in power for long requires making competitor elimination the single focus and the main priority of your policy.

Optimising for competitor elimination, you maximise the length of your rule

This uncanny principle explains a seeming paradox. Which is:

Bloody tyrants rule longer