[PedroBatista]

I wouldn’t be so optimistic, the country is run by people with the exact skills needed to keep the population in an alternate reality: psyops and a brutal secret police.

Add a cultivated desire to be “great again” plus economic hardship imposed from outside and Putin can hold a tight leach as he’s been doing. That’s the first time he’s probably gambling his life, but he’s far from being defeated.