@Nekketsu:
It's been 5 days and Putin is already more isolated than Gaddafi. Is that even possible?
Putin has managed to unravel everything he managed to build in 20 years in just few days.
He has spent over 20 years of dividing west and weakening EU, he had good success of backing up fringe parties on EU countries regardless of those parties political allignment, but populist far right parties were his greatest asset.
2016 was his most best year when he managed to break UK from EU with brexit vote (Russia was heavily funding brexit campaign). Then he hit jackpot getting populist Trump as US PRESIDENT, US intelligence caught up with Russia's support but charges never went through.
Donald Trump was everything Putin had hoped for an even more…. in his turn he divided US and West like never before, launching trade wars against EU allies and even threatening to leave NATO while Trump openly praised Putin's ruthless rule with every change. If Putin would attacked Ukraine during's Trump administration we would have gotten much weaker response from fractured west.
But he went too far as same time, Brexit was such a disaster for UK that any anti-EU parties in europe quickly gave up their respective Leave EU campaigns ironically making EU more united and stable.
Trump, while effective asset was also too divisive and extreme causing over half of Americans to hate Trump and his politics, causing Trump to fail secure a second term even with Russia's financial aid, Trump was just too much and too soon for Americans.
Even still there were some victories left for Putin, US humiliation on Iraq and later Afghanistan left USA with tarnished imago and its people weary of international conflicts. Putin had still good grip on europe with his populist allies such as Orban on Hungary and Law and justice party in Poland, both antagonist against EU and looking up for Putin's Russia. Syrian war unleashing refugee crisis allowed him to weaponized refugees against Europe, Russia transported refugees to various EU borders to destabilize those countries with uncontrolled surge of desparate refugees running away from war, this had two positive results for Putin, EU members were arguing who and where should refugees to be placed and influx of culturally different refugees spurning anti-migrant populist movements in EU countries.
EU was looking increasingly weak, depentand on Russian gas/oil, fractured by populists movements and USA isolating itself and focusing more on distant China allowed Russia's regional power growth.
Then Ukraine invasion happened.
Everything Putin had so painstakingly long worked on was undone in few days, Europe and entire west were appalled by Russian's blatant aggresion, making West more unified since cold war, western european countries such as Germany who had abandoned its own enegy production in favour of Russia's gas/oil and who had all but dismantled Germany's own military forced Germany to wake up and start increasing its military spending by huge leaps.
Even populist countries such Hungary sided against Putin, apparently shocked how brutal and barbaric their 'benefactor' actually was. Most populist politicians are now CONDEMNING Putin when in just few weeks ago they were shovering praises to Putin.
Now Russia is economically isolated, its soft power is spent, its reputation in gutter, expelled in sports/media and international organizations. Only North Korea is more alone. Putin has been shown a liar and a great enemy to all western values, even if Putin could conquer Ukraine tomorrow he is now and in future a Pariah in eyes of west, never to be trusted never mind respected.