I feel sorry for the many people actually in charge of sorting out the "Putin problem." There really is no crystal ball with the right answer to stop this mess. It will just have to carry itself through to whatever destination it is going towards.

My question is: "Why was someone like Mr. Putin given so much power in the first place?"

Gwyn Dyer has just written about Mr. Putin's possible drug addiction:

https://brooksbulletin.com/putin-junkie-madman/

If there is some truth to this, this kind of person should not be handling political power. Russia very much needed a different selection process.

Without a doubt, Russia is not a democracy where political leaders can be thrown out of office via an election. So maybe the Putin saga really does not apply to "the good guys."

But we had four years of a Trump presidency. We've elected too many politicians with an addiction issue. Current western democracies are not immune to inept leadership.

We really need a better democracy. Please consider Tiered Democratic Governance as a possible alternative:

https://medium.com/discourse/tiered-democratic-governance-3f36a8f45660

Maybe the best gift to give the people of Ukraine is a working example of this new democracy. We really should start building it in our own backyard.

Otherwise, when the dust finally settles, the "experts" will give Ukraine another version of western democracy.