Putin may be a smart man but I think the world now really realizes that Putin is truly a not so smart megalomaniac…even more so than previously thought. Combine that with a less than stellar results of Russia’s economic progress on the world stage left Russia going back to its old playbook of trying to war its way to more power. If Russia just opened up more to the west, stopped hacking companies worldwide, and not trying to destroy NATO…hell…everyone would be happy including the oligarchs in Russia. If Putin had not annexed part of Ukraine and just put Russia on more friendly terms with his neighbors Russia would be more powerful. But no…try to claim NATO is threatening Russia…and everyone is against us…well, that line can only be popular in Russia among the hard right for so long…eventually the population will get tired of Putin spending money on tanks when the economy is getting cut off.