an aside on 'Putinists'.

I would guess you probably take me to be a Putinist. That's not accurate. In one of your posts a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that you don't know me. Part of my family is from the area where the war in Ukraine is being fought. My great-great-grandparents lived in a settlement in central Ukraine and were pushed west during the pogroms at the turn of the 19th century. They died during that journey, and left my great-grandmother and her younger sister as orphans in northern Germany. They were put on a boat to the U.S. when my great-grandmother was fourteen, with no money and not enough food even for the trip. My great-grandmother hated Russians with a passion. I'm a practical person. Ukraine was devoured by vultures after the break-up of the Soviets. You mentioned it being a democratic country; it's really not. Viktor Yanukovych was democratically elected, but he was overthrown in a violent coup organized and backed by the U.S. Department of State under Hillary Clinton. His successor (Petro Poroshenko) was appointed. Poroshenko would have ran unopposed in 2019, but Igor Kolomoyski (who built his billions on robbing the country blind) and Poroshenko had a falling out and Kolomoyski put Zelensky on the ticket and bankrolled him. The same thing would have happened to Russia if it were not for Putin - the country robbed blind, the people impoverished, with little hope for anyone. There's a good in that even if it's very difficult for westerners to see.