'Putin’s Suez moment: he’s watching his Central Asian empire drift away'

Another false quotation. Machiavelli did not advise that it is better to be feared than loved. He advised in Chapter XVII of The Prince that it is best to be both loved and feared but that when gratitude is dissolved by threats to survival fear is a more reliable way to inspire discipline than love. 

Vladimir Putin seems neither feared nor loved in the former Soviet Union, according to Mark Galeotti. 

The war is an accelerator. No epiphany for Putin, but defeat in Ukraine and decline elsewhere may help Russians begin reassessing their place in the world.

His article behind the Times paywall is here.

So far this war has been a humiliation and a disaster for Russia. We shall all pay a price for this even though Putin has blundered badly.