Fuckers bombed a hospital
Meanwhile, there are still high-ranking politicians in Germany and Austria unwilling or very slow to distance themselves from Pootey-Poot. Far right higher-ups have been besties with him for a long time. FPÖ (one of the most nationalistic and racist parties here in Austria) infamously invited him to her wedding. But also pretty central figures in more moderate parties as well. The German Social Democratic Party is currently in damage control mode because former chancellor Gerhard Schröder had been thick with him up until very recently. Former Austrian chancellors Christian Kern (Social Democratic) and Wolfgang Schüssel (Austrian People's Party - i.e. Conservative Party) had key positions in Russian state-owned businesses. The former at least had the good sense to immediately step down and distance himself after the war broke out - the latter only after over a week of intense pressure.
Supposedly "leftwing" German politician Sahra Wagenknecht recently apologized for having miscalculated the situation (She had claimed quite publicly that she is certain Putin doesn't want a war and had been pretty smitten with him for years. She's also recently been under intense scrutiny for spreading Covid misinformation and for giving Anti-Vaxxers an air of "legitimacy"). One of her top party members, Gregor Gysi recently said he's glad his party isn't in the parliament and that it would be "disastrous" if they were. The far right German AFD party is also in a massive pickle - with some functionaries holding on to their Putin Kool Aid, while others are worrying about the public image - after all, they only want to discriminate against refugees that aren't Caucasian.
A lot of that is in the media(s) in German-speaking countries right now. I for one am glad all this Putin canoodling top politicians have displayed over the years has finally come to bite them in the ass, even if only by being spotlighted.
Anyway, the guy's an autocratic pathetic madman pandering to homophobes, oligarchs, nationalistic rightwing nuts, religious zealots and the likes. A man staging sports events, deep-sea treasure hunts and countless other things to look more appealing to the masses. A man so deeply afraid of any iota of opposition that he makes protests illegal. A tyrant carefully capitalizing on the tired "Strong man" trope - an image he crafted over the years - one that rightwing nuts salivated over. And the world played into his narrative, in many different ways. I hope that now at least some of those folks get to see him for the pathetic maniac he actually is.