“Sane people have to rely on Putin the and Russians to be the ones to be the adults and show restraint.”
You mean like how we trusted them not to use the Sochi Olympics as an excuse to stage an invasion of Crimea? Or how we relied on them last year when they (and you) insisted that they were not going to start a broader war with Ukraine? You know, “just exercises”, right?
In short, anyone who still relies on Putin and the Russians to act like adults and show restraint is a damned fool.
You have it backwards. We leveraged timing with the Sochi Olympics and threw the putsch precisely during the Olympics. We also used it to rub Russia’s nose in homosexuality.
That is why they secured Crimea when they did. The Ukes and DC intended Sevastopol to be a NATO navy base. And it probably saved Crimean citizens from the fate of those poor souls in Odessa at the hands of Uke militias.