Some of you laughed when I said, on day 1 of Putin's "special military operation" in Ukraine, that Russia was a third-rate military power--Bangladesh with nuclear weapons. 40 days into the war, as the Russians increasingly turn tail, it is becoming obvious that even this assessment understated the country's military ineptitude.
Russia has been shown to be just another banana republic with imperial fantasies but no weight to throw around. It has transmuted from a fabled power to a pariah dog--despised rather than feared. Putin has gone from enigmatic to pathetic. Another in a long line of pretend caesars with plenty of bark but no bite.
As the conflict now evolves into a war of attrition, things will only get worse for comrade Vladimir.