If anything Putin is too soft and too late, he should have hardened his heart earlier and done what was needed before it could fester and entrench itself to the extent it did but he kept getting strung along by the fake Minsk agreements

Liberals who view Putin as an aggressive tyrant are just like the conservatives who viewed Obama as a radical socialist.

Obama was terrified of being perceived as a radical leftist and was constantly compromising and capitulating to the right in order to prove that he wasn’t one. It didn’t make a difference, because the right wing’s boogeyman caricature of him was impervious to facts and reality.

Similarly, Putin has constantly brushed off provocations and sought to compromise with the West (to a foolish degree even), but his actions have no effect on his portrayal, because the NATO media cinematic universe needs a villain.