Macron is right about the danger of Russia after Putin

France’s President Macron has raised hackles time and again with his interventions on Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. For all his grandstanding bombast though, he has often raised the policy dilemmas that the West really ought to be discussing. Most recently, he warned, while returning from the Munich Security Conference, that active efforts to topple Vladimir Putin would be a mistake, because someone more dangerous would succeed him.

Discussions about Russia’s future after Putin – and the advisability of outright seeking to unseat him – are in many ways a touchstone about attitudes towards Russia. For those who believe that, because they are not resisting, the majority of Russians are actively supportive of the war and all its attendant atrocities, it is logical to conclude that any successor would at least be as bad. (That nevertheless sidesteps the question of whether North Koreans, because they are not rioting, are keen on starving.)