The Prime Minister is de jure the acting president in case of a vacancy. Given the strength of legal institutions in Russia Mikhail Mishustin would have some work ahead of him to actually hold power.

At some point, and we all have to draw our lines somewhere, which means this will vary person to person, we have to acknowledge that this deniability is no longer plausible.

Years of replying ‘good point’ to every “Camp of the Saints” reference on the social media website you bought followed by a Roman salute feels like a good place to draw that line.