I also wonder about the "Putin loses power in Russia" scenario that the author brushes aside. It seems to me that we could fight Putin on the "internal politic

I also wonder about the "Putin loses power in Russia" scenario that the author brushes aside. It seems to me that we could fight Putin on the "internal politics" front in a way that A) forces a choice between escalation of the war and stabilization of his regime and B) Has enough plausible deniability that failure doesn't immediately trigger a nuclear response.