John, the likes of Putin need the "interference" in order to survive. And, people's love of a strongman (he has Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson as admirers).

As David Brooks in his column in the NYT this morning points out (yet again), democracy is not natural -- the Putin/Russia model is natural. And that democracy requires constant gardening and guarding (my words) to work -- and to remain. We need to take back the steering wheel and other controls because our continued security and prosperity are not on autopilot.

The Biden/Blinken team seem to have risen to the occasion in staying kind of ahead of Putin's shenanigans. The resolve of the Ukrainians has been impressive so far and this is key to eventually a happy outcome.

Putin over the years has maintained his position despite having a poor hand. The economy of Russia is about the size of Italy's and is primarily oil and minerals based. There was an enormous opportunity lost for Russia to become a modern competitive economy (still possible while resources exit) but this is not Putin's environment.

Many thanks