I can't think the Russian people are pleased to see war again so close to home. If there were free elections there now I reckon Putin would be hammered. As Karl

I can't think the Russian people are pleased to see war again so close to home. If there were free elections there now I reckon Putin would be hammered. As Karl Popper and other people have said, free elections are the best mechanism for preventing governments from making stupid mistakes. The fear of being removed from power makes them much more cautious in their actions. The best illustration of this in action can be seen by comparing what happened to Churchill and Stalin at the end of WW2. Churchill made some stupid statements about the Labour party being like the Gestapo and he got crushed in the 1945 election. When Churchill got back into power a few years later he did not undo the Labour reforms. Stalin, who had killed millions of his own people in the 1930's and dithered like a frightened child at the Nazi invasion in 1941, stayed in power to kill more of his own people until his death in 1953. The Russian people deserve better.