So - obviously - the correct answer is no.

Not entirely. Supposedly, Putin became more hardline when he saw what happened to Gaddafi (I've seen this spelled a million different ways, forgive me if I got it wrong) in Libya. He was in power for over a generation. Opens up a bit to the western world at the very end and it leads to his downfall. Putin wants to avoid that so he closes off instead of opening up.

The problem with dictators, as with all authoritarian regimes, is that the structure that gives you power and keeps you in power can inevitably lead to your downfall. Twist the people too much and they rise against you. Propaganda can keep them in line but too much and you start believing your own bullshit and lose touch with reality and make dumb mistakes. That's kind of what's happened here.

Why is the Russian Military so inept despite the claims that it was modernized? Because the kleptocracy that rewarded Putin acolytes with wealth had to come from somewhere. Putin should have taken a lesson from Afghanistan. Why did it fall so fast, despite 2 decades of US military and funds? Because everyone was stealing government funds. So, when you're in charge, say you ordered something that you didn't really. Or you say you order more than what you really did. Skimp on quality. You have phantom soldiers that you're paying for. They're on the payroll, they don't really exist because someone is merely pocketing that money. But he was too into the bullshit, his advisors so eager to please the guy who literally gave them everything and can just as easily take it all away, wouldn't tell him the truth. And so, here he finds himself.

It can hapen on a small scale as well. The last company I worked at was doing well. We had a working business model. Not exciting but certainly everyone made good money.

Then my boss hired a bunch of yes-men who told him that his farts did in fact smell like roses. The company dropped a lot of money on a vanity project and stopped doing the actual business.

The company is a shell of its former self now, most of the actual valuable workers have left.

I mean they didn't invade a sovereign nation - yet, so there is that.