What are some of Russia’s historical analogues or antecedants who were eased into mitigation?
Its all about the easing process of defanging them. Like gently but firmly removing the reins of power and helping the pesky ones go quietly into this sad night
World War III
Look at history before WWII. More wars, imperialism, competition in general. The end of WWII brought a new superpower—the USA—NATO, the United Nations and a shift to more diplomacy and trade.
Yes, yes there was still imperialistic shit going on, even to this day. But, it hasn’t been nearly as bad as pre-WWII.
Russia, and the USA, are shifting back to the old footing of using hard power to for economic gain and influence. China might be heading that way, too.
Hopefully, it gets rolled back. I think there is some hope for the USA for peaceful regime change. Russia, however, still isn’t feeling the pain of regressive policies enough to make a change. I think, absent all out global war, things will have to get pretty bad there before their attitudes change.