Why? They should be able to get some of the new sanctions removed if they withdraw from Ukraine but maintain the Putin regime, maybe.
I think they’re less dangerous now then ever. Their post-Cold War power peak was 2014- 2016, when they used their media/propaganda savvy to sneak in “little green men” to steal parts of Ukraine, and managed to buy or blackmail enough right wing political and media types to cause calamities in the UK/EU (Brexit) and US (orange ogre), while brainwashing vulnerable segments of the population with social media disinformation campaigns. Since then it’s been downhill. Notably, they failed to oust Macron using the same Wikileaks type attacks, but timed to coincide with a wrinkle in French media law. Austria busted some high placed Russian quislings. We elected two patriotic Americans over the orange ogre and the Gilead wannabe, and then turned back the ogre’s attempted January 6th putsch. President Biden’s strategy of intelligence dumps castrated Russia’s ability to wage information war against Ukraine and, while it was never going to stop Putin, it did expose his actions (unlike in 2014) and contributed to the global unity we’re seeing opposed to this attack. Ukrainians did the rest by showing extraordinary valor in the face of tyranny.
Now, Russia’s conventional military isn’t exactly looking superhuman when fighting a motivated opponent with a few modern weapons. As for nukes, they require not just an order but implementation. There was at least one instance when an officer in the old Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces disobeyed an order to launch based on intel that turned out to be wrong. What about one based on no intel of incoming nukes?
If anything, maybe seeing a real bad actor on the global stage should motivate Western diplomats to begin to rehabilitate Iran. Yes, their regime sucks. Yes, they did horrible things to prop up Assad. Yes, they made us pay for our unprovoked aggression against the Iraqis, though from their position it was bog us down or be next on Rummy & Cheney’s permanent revolution list. But they have oil, and have never attacked a neighbor. So compared to Russia, Iran comes off smelling like rose water, pomegranates, and saffron
