I have heard many people talk about the “genius of Putin” over the years. Yes, a hard, twisted, narcissist of a man, but a very smart dictator … I am not sure about this. Not that I ever thought he was ever that clever.

A few days ago I was texting with my old friend Branko and I said to him, “What if Putin is actually an idiot?” and he responded with, “That is my big worry.”

If Putin really did fear NATO expansion will then this insane war of his has backfired. NATO is re-energized and now Sweden and Finland are discussing joining. And as soon as that happened we read headlines like, “Russia threatens Sweden, Finland with ‘negative consequences’ of joining NATO”.

If Putin really wanted to disarm Ukraine then this has also backfired. Ukraine is united like never before, and armed to the hilt, with more and more hardware rolling in all the time. Yes, the opposite is happening. Ukraine is becoming the most armed country in Europe and their military experience is by now through the roof.

Putin is no genius. I am starting to believe he is an idiot. And what kind of a superpower is Russia? Their army is incompetent and unprofessional. Barbaric is the word, and out of touch. With no purpose or clue.

I was listening to Fiona Hill on an Ezra Klein podast and she says, “Putin wants to make this war about the United States, NATO and Russia”. This guy may actually be off his head. If Putin is in fact a mad idiot then God knows how this is going to play out. But it does give me hope that his days are numbered. It can’t be that everyone around him is the same. Surely at some point they are going to want to get rid of this idiot.