Did Russians "choose" Putin and his regime? I don't see it. And I don't believe the average Russian wants Ukrainians killed. The only Russians I've seen who said such things on 1420, say, were old and probably close to dying from alcohol poisoning.

If you take your logic to its conclusion you are calling Russians genetically genocidal. If one argues, not it's not that, it's the propaganda. Then is it really their fault? You cann't force someone to be curious about the world around them. And one could expect, once the war is over, after a generation, Russian would no longer hold those views. Again, doesn't matter, because most people are uneducated (at least those who are left in Russia) and there isn't a democracy in Russia.

I agree with you, Putin dying is far from the end of the war, but I believe it has little to do with what the average Russian wants (who have no agency).

In the past 30 years who became more powerful in the west from Russian gas, say. Germany or Russia? Russia and Germany (just best example) had an unwritten rule. Germans could identify with their industrial export power. Russians could identify with their military power (again, the feeling of power, not the desire to kill Chechens or Ukrainians, etc). Russia builds Norstream II and Germany drags its feet. It basically tells Russia it's the more powerful party. The West has been taking pot-shots at Putin (and by extension his regime) for years before the war. And when he exercized his power in other places, what did the West do? Nothing. ALWAYS KEEP THAT IN MIND. You write it, but you don't recognize nothing has changed. Obama told Russia/Syria there was a "red line". In the end, fck the Syrians.

The West does not care about Ukraine. If it did it would have entered the war day 1. It should have, IMO. How many dead Ukrainian babies do we need as proof?

This is all a long winded way of saying if Putin dies it isn't the end of the war, it will be a resource grab between various factions (which is always going on) and Ukraine will have to play some hard ball that will add insult to injury to what it has endured.

I'd love to put all the problems on "Russians", but Putin is a problem many have noticed for years. And now China is going exactly in the same direction!