Regarding the Putin angle, this occurred in 2019/20 before the Feb 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
There's actually worse scenarios than Putin in control of Russia.
Rewind to 2020. In the scenario where he dies from COVID because the US doesn't provide a small number of test kits to him, a few questions;
- Who takes control of Russia?
- Does Russia fragment?
- What happens to Russian nuclear forces?
- Can all Russian nuclear, biological & chemical weapons remain secure and under control?
The one thing the US can remain fairly confident of is that Putin can control things domestically. When there's no clear succession plan in Russia, no one actually knows what happens if/when Putin dies.
Back in 2019/20, the US probably didn't 't want to do anything that might hasten Putin's fall from power. The US probably still doesn't to be honest.
None of this is said to support what Putin is doing in Ukraine. It's looking at things from the angle of Russia domestically.
