It's true, and everyone knows it now. Russia, or rather Putin and his Soviet style wannabes, fueled by greed and corruption, vodka and lies, are caught in their own trap. What's the number one rule of narco drug lords? Don't dip into your own stash. But Putin's mafia-ocracy started believing the supposedly patriotic lies they were feeding the serfs. They actually had nothing. And now it's all coming home to roost.

Your essential point, just give ordinary Russians some dignity after it's all over, though I certainly hope they do get some, is a little too easy. 1.2 million casualties, and they're not from Moscow or St. Petersburg. They're from the Far East, the Caucasus, Siberia, Central Asia, all the lol "Republics" that were left out of the post-soviet shopping malls and nice cars, money and opportunity, and they're not going to just go along ... again. This time they really got screwed. Where's the anger going to go? I don't know, but it's not going to be pretty.

Maybe the Russian Federation will break up. Maybe it won't. Maybe China will grab the Far East they were forced to give up in the 1800s. There are a lot of scenarios. I hope the EU, UK, NATO, and the US, if it can patch itself back together after Trump, are running the scenarios and thinking really really hard about this. China, I assume, already is.

Mark Twain said history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes. How can we rhyme the Marshall Plan? That's the question. It's a tough one.