These are interesting times. I'm sure of only a few things, mostly obvious. I think Putin is not and has not been very sane. He is more like Trump than we dared fear, emotionally dependent on perceptions and corrupt to the core. He also stores resentment from beyond his personal experience, and is at least a mean S.O.B. as Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). Dying of intense radiation poisoning has to have been more horrible than being literally buthcered and paracel-packed for repatriation. o

Currently we only know that whateve the Russians and Putin are declaring and planning, their words don't match what they are planning and probably not what they are currently even understanding as the truth. I believe Zelenskyy has pretty much stated the same about the Russians. Oddly enough, during the Big War, when the Russians turned the tables on one of Hitler's Armies (Stalingrad, almost exactly 80 years ago, they had to alternate between actual military announcements that could be believed and straightforward military accretion of forces (Otherwise who would ever believe them?). This is still what seems to be working for the Ukrainians. So we do not know specifically what is going on, and we are unlikely to know for some time.

Right now the Russians best chance of getting out of this with a minimum of losses is to pray that the U.S. Republicans are bent weirdly enough to support them or betray Ukraine, mainly to spite U.S. policy. But Biden seems to have his head screwed on straight no matter how shaky he may appear, and I'll bet that Putin is just the other way around, making every effort to appear lone and powerful but actually exposed under the ridiculousness attempt to appear Staling-esque.

Maybe it's time to revue "The Death of Stalin".