In a way, in many cases there is not real competition for the Head of State, for example in UK. And there is plenty of competition for the posts below that in Russia, as you can see with rotation of members of Government, presidential admin and so on.
As to Nemtsov - it was an action of a rogue actor and at the time Nemtsov possessed no threat to the established power. In fact he relied on support from Putin&co to get into the public office due to his own poor electability.
And people like Navalny (and others) are still alive if with criminal convictions that would preclude them from running in 2024, which they wisely got under the advise of their political consultants, as this would absolve them from any responsibility while generating martyrdom status and thus unaccountable funding (that say Navalny spends on lavish vacations instead of legal help for his supporters).
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Grumpy as always.
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