You think YOU are their greatest threat. They won't hurt or kill you, you're the one they want to punish. They'll hurt or kill someone close, and make you live with the knowledge that you're responsible, then tell you who the next target is.

Your move.

Or in other words, you get immediately quashed, your existence meant nothing, and you get to reveal nothing. Quite a pipe dream to think you are "going loudly publicly" in Russia. I'll take the "rat" any day of the week over ineffective/false bravado, at least one actually ratted out what needed to be ratted out while the other just goes to Siberia indefinitely.

you threaten me or try to blackmail me first thing I would do is [blah blah blah]

This is just you daydreaming from the safety of your comfy armchair. Unless you've actually been personally harassed and threatened by agents of the state who can do pretty much whatever they want in pursuit of their goals, you can't honestly say how you'd react.

This is why when someone threatened my family, I just pushed them out the window myself. Can't give them that power over you.

Sometimes, if you go to hit something head-on, you'll just get a split skull.

And alone, with nobody mourning your loss.

Say they threatened to kill your whole family, everyone in your contacts list, everyone who owes you money, everyone you owe money, everyone you ever loved or liked. What are you going to do?

If you were part of an institution of mission-oriented people, they could help protect your family and loved ones, and the people you care about. But the price of joining that institution is that you have to put yourself in harm's way as your new way of life.

If that appeals to you, you're in luck. There are lots of institutions in the world looking for new recruits. Go get'em tiger.

Otherwise, your commitment to opposition is only as strong as your permission to let the things you love die as a result of your commitment to the cause.