My immediate reaction as well.
And then, as a follow-up, how many were resigned to ‘oh well, I guess we’re at this next stage then’.
As this was from 2 years ago, it does give a sense of how, no matter what it might seem from the outside, the Russians themselves would be cautiously relieved by a change in their entire government. It would take time for the caution to fade into the background, but I don’t think even at first there would be much resistance to becoming more like Ukraine (rather than the other way around).
