David Brooks: How Do You Handle a Wounded Putin?

From a New York Times column by David Brooks headlined “How Do You Handle a Wounded Putin?”:

The world shifted this week. Vladimir Putin showed that he knows how deeply wounded he is. He knows that his rule is under existential threat if Russia is completely humiliated in Ukraine. He also showed the world that his strategy in this context is to escalate. He is signaling that his best bet for survival is to cast the war against Ukraine as a struggle against the entire West.