We might be seeing the beginning of the end of the old imperial style Russia now, change can come about very quickly when the foundations start to crumble.
There's just a small problem i see:
Putin grew powerful in the shadow of the fall of the Sovjet Union. He, among many others in his back, experienced the fade of the SU as unjustified and cruel, and now it's perfectly reasonable that he (believes) is fighting for a good thing, the reestablishment of the good, old Union. Golden times will come again (and so on)...
Now imagine Russia under Putin ending as an imperial force, all the people under sanctions and poverty, without future visions, a whole nation in misery, just like North Korea, but on a higher scale. A nation's young generation, growing up under grief, with no future, because of the "bad western nazi imperium".
These times might create much more dangerous dictators than Putin.
And don't let us forget about China! Can Europe afford to lose Russia, as the "whore of Bejing"? I don't think so.
Imho, if Putin's regime finally fallls, Europe and the EU should embrace Russia as a part of europe, tear down ideological walls, bring more evenly distributed wealth to the country. As unrealistic as it might seem, it's the only long term solution to the Eurasian conflict. Of course, the EU has to adress their problems with corruption and become a way more serious government than they tried to put up so far. Otherwise the EU will start to crumble. That's why i think Russia should not be isolated after Putins regime ends. Otherwise when will they recover and start another war? 2030-2040?
The voice of sanity.
Can we punish Putin and his cronies, and stop the war, without punishing 140 million or more Russians? If we really have no choice but to damage Russia to the maximum, then let's not crow about it.
Not only is this unbecoming, but it's foolish to think that we can step on Russia's neck until she bleeds without creating future geopolitical problems.
Xi is watching. The Chinese play the long game, and I can hear them thinking:
These punitive tactics of the Western alliance mean that we won't be able to invade Taiwan soon, but it also means that dollar hegemony is doomed. The nations of the world have been put on notice that the capital they have saved over decades of trade can disappear at any moment. Every sovereign power on this earth is going to seek a way out of the dollar dominated world currency system and move away from fiat money to commodity money. After the transition, the world will be China's oyster. Taiwan will be ours for the taking, and the U.S. won't be able to do anything about it. The dollar is a damp squib and the U.S. won't use military force against a nuclear power, we've seen that in Ukraine.
