^ Very true.
"While typically not traceable to any individuals and plausibly denied by government officials, poisonings leave little doubt of the state’s involvement — which may be precisely the point."
The point it proves is that the russian government obviously feels the need for such methods, because they are not able to silence critics otherwise.
Another point they prove with it is, that the government is wrong and undemocratic.
" ... Used extensively in the Soviet era, political murders are again playing a prominent role in the Kremlin’s foreign policy, the most brutal instrument in an expanding repertoire of intimidation tactics intended to silence or otherwise intimidate critics at home and abroad."
And the parliamant officially supports that:
"No other major power employs murder as systematically and ruthlessly as Russia does against those seen as betraying its interests abroad. Killings outside Russia were even given legal sanction by the nation’s Parliament in 2006."
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/w...ison.html?_r=0
Not that other nations have not used those methods in certain cases here and there, but this has a special quality,
and quantity.