CPT Charles: Am not disagreeing with you.
Nor you with me. We are just looking at the same Putin from slightly different angles.

He is hell-bent on those grandiose dreams and
in denial about those problems. Aware of them, yes, but denies they can stop his conquest.

Those psycho-capabilities are in full play here, it seems to me.

Yes, he was a career KGB officer. Had he been a career GRU officer I would have (a bit)
more confidence in his mental/emotional stability. GRU, charged with countering our capabilities, always had a more realistic view about what the USSR could and could not accomplish. KGB always assumed that the ability to repress domestic population could be expanded at will to wherever they wanted.
another version of the “command economy”.

And he is riding the tiger vis a vis that kleptocracy. That can add a few drops of frozen nitroglycerin to the C4.

Now I gotta get to work. So will check in later.