Another piece from someone who doesn’t know Putin–or Russia– very well.
Putin’s problem (and Russia’s) is that he wants to be Peter the Great. But all of the latter’s reforms failed–as has every succeeding attempt by Russia to modernize. Putin now resides over a country entirely tied to fossil fuel extraction. He’ s just suffered1 million excess deaths during the pandemic–in a country with a declining population. All his overseas gambits in Syria, Libya and the CAR were designed to somehow frighten the West into giving back Ukraine–very much as a mob boss harasses a store owner to get him to pay ransom. All have failed–which shows why mob bosses rarely become anything more than mob bosses.
To think that a St Petersburg slum kid who was coopted into the KGB (not exactly the most cultured group on the planet!) is a “genius” is simply delusional.
We are dealing with a slightly smarter version of the siloviki who have over the years bungled countless assassination attempts overseas, and even cluelessly told Navalny the details of his own assassination (!). They also accidentally shoot down airliners
Every gambit Putin has tried in the last 7 years to get Ukraine back has failed. The only reason Ukraine even wants in NATO is because of Putin’s misguided attempts to get it back.
An intelligent Russian leader would have built up his own nation, and thus try to woo Ukraine back in its orbit–for Ukraine’s own self interest.
This Russian leader is neither intelligent nor successful–except in bamboozling naive westerners into believing ridiculous fantasies.

According to American media, Putin is the most powerful man in the world. He controls American presidential elections. For years the Americans repeated this on a daily basis. Russians are very proud of their omnipotent leadership.