Is he, though? Or is that a meme? I know it’s easy to see Putin’s entourage as a cartoon villain lair where saying no to anything will get you shot and replaced, but Putin, evil as he is, is really good at what he does and I don’t think it’s possible to be that good without being surrounded by some amount of other really intelligent people.

In general I don’t think it follows that he could still be in power if he weren’t in touch with reality.