How Putin’s mistakes rallied his enemies

This is no cause for complacency. Putin can still inflict enormous damage, particularly on the people of Ukraine. Holding firm against him will be costly, and unity against him in the West could fray. He will certainly try to sow divisions among and within the democracies. Party strife is one of freedom’s inevitable byproducts. Western voters will be tempted to see the showdown in Ukraine as, in Neville Chamberlain’s infamous phrase, “a quarrel in a faraway country.” Nonetheless, it’s not outlandish to hope that Russian citizens, including some among its elites, will eventually tire of the isolation bred by their leader’s misadventures and misjudgments — especially if he drags his country into a large and costly land war. If the West remains patient and determined, Putin could yet reap the whirlwind at home. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/23/putin-ukraine-russian-overreach-his-own-undoing/