[kadoban]

My guess is that Putin just way overplayed his hand. A decade or two of his tricks to undermine NATO and the West got him overconfident and he thought he the fundamentals of NATO were weaker than they are.

Dictators have a tendency to surround themselves with yes-men over time as well, that's probably playing into this some.

Now I'm sure he realizes he miscalculated, but it's unclear how to stand down.