Why doesn't Putin have Navalny killed?

Because he’s suffering more with bad food, cold, lack of proper nutrition, lack of proper medical care, maybe lack of sleep, etc. rather than death, which would be an easy out.

Plus Putin can show everyone else what power he has to make someone suffer.

One thing dictators don’t like to do is create a martyr. Too often, a martyr brings down a regime.

Such a sign of his dictatorship that you would ask this question and everyone understands that could actually happen.

The big question for me is why did Nivalny go back to Russia when he was free? Crazy.

Have you seen the documentary Nivalny? Incredible.

I guess Putin is proving he didn’t try to kill Nivalny by letting him live. Of course, he did try to kill him though.

Dictators prefer to break people rather than kill them. Killing is more of an expediency, when breaking them would take too much political capital. If you kill them, you just have to deny it, but it doesn’t kill what they represent. Martyrs can be powerful symbols. So you put them on ice: it removes their direct power, creates room for counter-narratives about their crimes that you can blast through state media, and might eventually lead to them breaking down and saying whatever you want them to say, just to stop the torture. Nothing defuses a movement like having the leader acknowledge the error of their ways.

He died a slow death, suffering and probably without medical care. It sends a message to any critics of Putin.

Putin learned from Stalin !