Castro was sick to the point of being unable to function, right?

That's my understanding. I think Putin would probably get killed if he found himself similarly weakened, but that's not certain. Assuming he's not killed, he'll get old and weak too eventually.

That didn't stop Biden!

Or his opponent who couldn't run up a flight of stairs without soiling his depends. Fucking ancient bastards.

> I'm still betting on a premature death

Mr Putin is 70 years old, and reports of his health issues are circulating. So I think that it's too late for "premature" death.

I'm talking about homicide. An assassination or summary execution, like Ceaușescu.

A number of dictators ending up being dethroned (without a full-blown civil war): Robert Mugabe (already in his 90s though), Suharto, Pol Pot, Pinochet, a bunch of others whose names escape me at the moment.

I'd be interesting to gather some data on this, but I suspect it's more common that casual perception might indicate.

One possible reason for the mysterious Russian Modified Gravity that causes people to fall to their deaths might be that Putin's position is not as secure as he might like us to think. He doesn't even need to be assassinated: once he's no longer in a position to order around force, what is he going to do? Some of the above lived for decades after being deposed.