How Putin Could Have Achieved His Goals in Ukraine Peacefully

As the Russian war on Ukraine grinds on into it’s third murderous week, I can’t help but thinking of alternative scenarios that could have played out.
Obviously, one can go way back with this. For example, if instead of Vladimir Putin succeeding Boris Yeltsin, what if it were someone else. Trever Noah comes to mind, and then quickly leaves the mind. For one…