What would it take? (UPDATED)

We all know the mantra by now: “Putin is in cahoots with the West!  Putin is a puppet of the world oligarchy!  Putin sold out Novorussia!  Putin only pretends to oppose the Empire!”.  We heard it all year long.Then came Putin’s Valdai speech.  It was not anything new, he had said very similar things in 2007: the world hegemony of the USA was unacceptable and it would be stopped. But