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Putin's leadership is so atrocious that he's bad even by the standards of Russian leaders. No need to watch the news to come to this conclusion, just look at the numbers. All Russian statistics point to a society in decline, held afloat (briefly) by high oil prices, and unable (under present leadership) to reform itself.
As for sanctions, they were instituted in response to Russian aggression. If Russia had left its neighbours in peace, Western countries and especially Germany would have happily continued liberalising trade.
Like, it’s really hard to come up with a scenario where Russia’s current crisis is _not_ Putin’s fault. Putin was there in more or less everything that lead to it. Whose fault did you think the sanctions were, if not Vlad’s?
Most European countries haven’t killed off 0.2% of their population over the last 18 months in a pointless, doomed war driven by their leaders’ personal vanity, for instance, so there’s that. At this point, Putin’s ridiculous project has killed nearly as many Russians as covid did.