> Yet he spends 0 effort on finding the guilty parties when journalists/political opponents die.

Yes, you are right this is very disturbing and needs to be dealt with.

> That you actually attempt mental gymnastics trying to explain it in more convoluted ways tells me that the Kremlin propaganda machine works.

This is not a "convoluted mental gymnastics", this is a necessary exercise to resist the very propaganda. Talking about propaganda - could you come up with some particular example of it which makes me perform all these mental gymnastics attempt? I'm honestly curious whether I would be able to distinguish it.