Asininedrivel
caviar connoisseur
None of them were conducting a full scale invasion of a neighbour that was haemorrhaging badly and proving them to be a paper tiger in the process though. Plus his reaction swinging from "all traitors will be annihilated" to "all is forgiven" to "actually no it isn't I'm very cranky" in the space of 3 days doesn't exactly make him look robust imo. Putin prides himself as a dictator who brooks no dissent, yet he's allowing the leader of a mutiny to slink off after orchestrating an open rebellion?I Think people might be overplaying the "Putin has been weakened" line, though. Many dictators (Mugabe, Maduro, Mao, etc.) have faced worse things than this and lived through it to continue their rule.
We'll see how it plays out long term, but yeah I'd say short term he's been substantially weakened.