Chris, I love your analyses, but you are quibbling over semantics, presupposing. St. Petersburg and Moscow don't need to be shielded by Putin because they have self-shielded for their own material well-being, safety, and sanity. Russians have moved on from the phrase "this war is terrible." They are now in the phase of, "This is what it is, and there is nothing I can do about it, so accept it."