Putin must have a really tight group of loyal idiots under his command, it's hard to believe he's still in power.
I hope this also leads to introspection about the dangers of giving one person so much power. Rally behind the flag/leader is an old fashioned concept that needs to be done away with. What if a Putin type gets control of China or the USA next...
And also, get on with getting rid of nuclear weapons, why are they still around (about 13,000 of em). Probably because Russia still has the most (on paper) and without the threat of USA's retaliation, no doubt Putin would have been tempted to use them. However after Russia collapses, get rid of all that crap.