I don’t know what Putin is thinking. Neither does anyone else other than himself. Mindreading articles about Putin are pretty common, usually from the UK.
The wiki for MacGregor says he is a West Point graduate. The US service academies are harder to qualify than Ivy League. Not many know that. He also has a PhD in International Relations from Univ of Virginia. That’s not a diploma mill.
It also says he appeared on RT and FoxNews. I suspect he is not a paid employee of either. Appearing need not even be paid.
So, he’s not stupid.
Ah, a “whiz kid.” Kind of like Robert McNamara. He was smart too, not stupid, right? But maybe in a Fredo kind of way.
Book learning don’t give one common sense
But his predictions are almost always completely wrong.
That raises questions about his goals.