Western democracies' telegraph reception has always been defective, which encourages authoritarian kleptocracies to go too far. Putin had been surprised at how well the Crimea annexation had gone. Like Hitler after Russia's Winter War against Finland, he engaged in hubristic sampling error. Hitler concluded that all he had to do against the USSR was kick in the door and it would collapse. Big mistake that ignored Russia's war record when allied with a stronger western power(s).

Putin made the same mistake after Obama folded after Crimea, Donbass and Syria and Trump's "perfect" phone call with Zelensky.

Thanks for reading.