Lets hope its 4D chess. Putin wants to destroy Russia so it can be reborn as a pacifist winter tech wonderland, because everyone finally did the math and having a giant military and a stack of nuclear weapons is more expensive than peace.

Sadly I don't think it'll play out that way,

From General Sir Richard Shirreff, who served as NATO deputy military commander until 2014, when Putin last invaded Ukraine.

https://youtu.be/b8uQJkyeY2M

The only upside I see is that there'll be a slew of really great spy thrillers set in Europe to read when I next get to travel internationally.