The fact that Russia always does shit like this, blowing up its own people or tossing them off of balconies as r-ANormalDayinRussia, is why it is so obvious that Russia blew up its own pipeline. There has never been a shadier, more manipulative country, nor has there ever been a country which has so deeply intertwined state media propaganda, espionage, and assassination/sabotage.

Plenty of other countries might want to behave this way to varying degrees, but they actually have enough shame to be afraid of the risk of getting caught. Not even the Chinese Communist Party comes remotely close to any of this shit, instead preferring to just use bribes and hacking. But Russia? Fucks given: zero. Oh? Are you mad we murdered someone on your soil for criticizing us? So sorry, here is some polonium tea in apology.

Russia's government is run more like a drug cartel than any other major nation you can think of.

Edit:

Let's talk about who the victim of the bombing Vladlen Tatarsky was & what motive Putin had to kill him:

Vladlen Tatarsky [real name Maxim Yuryevich Fomin] was a Ukrainian-born Russian military blogger, convicted bank robber, and participant in the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Reflecting back on the Donbas War, Fomin would later state that "thousands of Russian officers" had served in the region since October 2014, thereby contradicting the official Russian position that the Russian Federation was not involved militarily in mainland Ukraine before 2022.

Tatarsky was known for his hardline views, criticizing Russian military commanders and Vladimir Putin for being too soft in their approach. Tatarsky also produced jihadist propaganda.

Annnnnd there it is. Thing about really opinionated people is that the moment your opinions don't line up perfectly with the regime or offend the wrong person in the regime, you can lose favor fast. And in Russia, losing favor moves you up on the "who should we false flag attack" list.