A day before Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny collapsed in what his allies say was a case of poisoning on Thursday, he met a group of young supporters in private and took a familiar question: why aren’t you dead?

According to one of the supporters, the 44-year-old smiled. His campaigns against the Kremlin and official corruption had made him many enemies and the target of several violent attacks over the years, so the question didn’t come as a surprise.