“The Soviet Union collapsed after the discreditation of the planners, and that was the result of the nuclear mess in the Ukraine.”

Is that the narrative you’ve been fed? The Soviet Union collapsed because it lacked the economic wherewithal to keep up in the arms race. Too much money into weapons, too little into other vital areas which could have grown the economy in the long term. The ‘planners’ may have been discredited, but it was because it quickly became clear that after all that military spending, the first time Western equipment and Soviet bloc equipment met on the field (Desert Storm) in full-scale combat, the last vestiges of Russian pride (it’s conventional military might) showed itself to be a paper tiger. . .stomped flat by the coalition in a matter of days. The planners certainly hadn’t shown the people that they were being provided a better standard of living than the western system offered.

We here all realize that Putin is most likely doing what he feels he must, in a shrinking time window, to try and salvage his failing nation. I imagine 70% of pregnancies ending in abortion will lead you to desperate measures, not to mention a rapidly dwindling population. Perhaps he believes that stomping on a relatively defenseless nation will revive national pride to the point that his citizens want to have children again. Or maybe he just thinks he can further put a hammerlock on energy for Europe.

To call the Pres of Georgia Machiavellian and not apply the same description to Putin and his figurehead is patently absurd.