The men Putin backed to be presidents are in power in Ukraine, the USA, and Belarus. Zelenskyy capitulates to invader Russia in Donbas and ignores Crimea. Trump takes direction from Moscow as he dismantles constitutional government. Lukashenka begs for Russians to take over.
In Britain, Putin is very happy to have gotten away with decisively interfering in the Brexit referendum and to have the amoral nihilist Boris Johnson as PM. He would have been OK with Soviet Union nostalgist Jeremy Corbyn. He fears and hates Keir Starmer.
In France, Putin would have preferred the fascist Marine Le Pen as President. But he has managed to turn Emmanuel Macron and gotten him to adopt an obdurate appeasement policy towards Russia. Macron now sides with invader Russia against defender Ukraine.
In Germany, Putin prefers as Chancellor anyone from the SPD, given its bizarre Ostpolitik obsession and habit of bowing down to Russia while ignoring Germany's closer neighbours to the east. But Putin has managed to neuter Angela Merkel during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In Italy, Putin has the best he could have reasonably hoped for with a coalition government between the Five Star Movement and the League. Pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine, Italy was part of the appeasement faction that brought invader-of-Ukraine Russia back into PACE in 2019.
Putin falsified the Moldova election in 2016 a week before the U.S. one. Russia's puppet Igor Dodon was made president instead of Maia Sandu, just as Russia's puppet Trump was instead of Hillary Clinton. With Dodon's support, Russia maintains an occupation army in Trans-Dniester.
In Czechia, Miloš Zeman is an old sovok who has been President since 2013 – one year before #RussiaInvadedUkraine. While Czech governments have frequently opposed him, Zeman remains pro-Putin. This makes the Czech Republic an unsteady ally in the fight against Russian aggression.
