It is clear that Putin needs to go. By any means necessary.
I hear people saying that, but this is very short term with no sustainable strategy.
Just genuinely pointing out he could be replaced by worse options, and you need to plan against it as well.
There is the guy, the system he built, the persons he chose to put in place, all incentivised to continue.
He'll die anyway sooner or later, and there will be a struggle for power regardless. Russia has a constitution, and article 81 describes how to get a new president via elections.
Current paranoid leader is waging major war and isolating the country, so it's hard to say what could be worse for the world. Maybe mobilization in Russia, but that may be a tough call for any newcomer.
…but be reallllll careful thinking through the consequences of “any means necessary”, because a lot of those means end in a huge escalation of the conflict which further reduces access to minerals and food. (And, like, human lives.)
what would taking out Bush Jr. in the early phase of operation Iraqi Freedom accomplish? would the next guy immediately withdraw from Iraq and apologize to the world for the past wrongdoings?