Bumpity. I can't say the picture has changed much over the last week. I still think Putin is at risk of falling out of a balcony because of his catastrophic stupidity.
The news about the Kremlin deeming Tucker Carlson's broadcasts "essential" is unsurprising and I agree that he is now, wittingly or not, quite important to Putin. As it is, Russia is isolated, over-extended, and getting weaker by the day. Their only hope to turn back the tide is for a crack to form in the NATO alliance. The more Fox News talking heads support Putin and lie about Ukrainian bioweapons, the sooner the base will shift towards supporting a completely hands-off approach. Once he sees enough support for it within the base, Trump will go back to innocently wondering why we can't get along Putin. After that, it'll only be a matter of time until the rest of the party follows him. The Republicans in Congress appear to be strongly opposed to Russia at the moment but, as we've witnessed time and time again, their principles will change the minute they start believing their prospects for re-election could be in jeopardy. It'll be harder for Biden to continue to respond effectively once there is a definitive, national partisan split on whether we should oppose Putin and support the Ukrainian resistance.