You are in denial...you are betting that Russia can’t take the pain for as long as Europe can take freezing with no natural gas for heating this Winter.
Putin’s strategy doesn’t need to be pain-free to Russia. You don’t understand that part.
Putin’s strategy merely needs to be more painful to Western Europe than to Russians.
And you’re thinking that Putin has totalitarian control that will allow him to run Russian without any revenue until Europe cracks and buy Russian gas. Europe needs Russian oil and gas, but Europe doesn’t only get oil and gas from Russia.