The strike, which occurred early Thursday morning, and the tumultuous American debate over the personality of Russian President Vladimir Putin, indicates a widespread ignorance of the practical and objective determinants that shape the minds and calculations of world leaders, at a time when the focus is on the jurisprudence of psychiatrists and the assessments of former intelligence men.

Previous assessments indicate the naivety of the American vision of Putin’s personality, as he is repeatedly placed in pre-fabricated molds, with repeated disregard for objective factors, historical events and developments, and their impact on his behavior and decisions.

Not only do many television programs and news reports demonize the Russian president, some even go so far as to describe Putin as suffering from unprecedented isolation and loneliness due to the Covid-19 virus.

Former senior officials described Putin as a shy figure who has suspicions in everyone around him, even among his top aides who worked with him for many years, while others went on to claim that Putin’s upbringing since his birth in 1952 made him strongly believe in the Soviet Union as an idea, value and status that Russia lost after its collapse in 1990 .

Months ago, in a television interview, US President Joe Biden reduced Putin's personality to one word and called him a "murderer", while the former Finnish president recently described him as becoming a tense, angry and unwise figure.

As for French President Manuel Macron, he said after his meeting with him last week that Putin has changed a lot and has become more tense.

Previous assessments indicate the naivety of the American vision of Putin's personality, as he is put again and again in prefabricated templates, with repeated disregard for objective factors, historical events and developments, and their impact on his behavior and decisions.

The famous Professor John Mearsheimer, professor of political science and international relations at the University of Chicago, rejects previous superficial assessments, and prefers to understand President Biden's behavior in light of the surrounding historical events and developments.

It is difficult to find a scholar or researcher in the field of interstate relations with the strength, depth and influence of Mearsheimer, whose works and writings have been studied by all students of international relations around the world since the last quarter of the 20th century until near the end of the first quarter of the 21st century.

Mearsheimer rejects superficial assessments about Putin, and believes that if we want to understand the character, actions and decisions of the Russian president, we must understand how Putin views the world as he is around him.

Putin, the righteous son of the former Soviet intelligence service, the KGB, believes that the Western world has one leader, the United States of America, and believes that Washington, whether under the rule of Republicans or Democrats, views Russia as a threat and an enemy that cannot be ignored.

According to Mearsheimer's vision, Putin's calculations are governed by an integrated and interconnected three-dimensional view, the first of which begins with the idea of ​​the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its extension eastward towards his country's borders, and the second is the expansion and expansion of the European Union, and the last of which is preaching the inevitability of achieving liberal democracy on the Western pattern in all European countries.

Hence, Putin certainly believes that the goal of overthrowing the strong centralized regime in Moscow remains the main driver of all Western policies since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s.

With regard to the expansion of NATO and its expansion to the east, Putin believes that the West has violated its commitments not to expand to the east, not even an inch, as stated by former Secretary of State James Baker in the early nineties of the last century.

Putin believes that Washington has taken advantage of his country's weakness and the chaos that struck it at the beginning of the 21st century, and has expanded NATO to the point of including former Soviet republics and countries from Eastern Europe that Russia has long borders, such as Poland.

Putin believes that the West, since 2008, after adopting an open-door policy to expand NATO, including Ukraine and Georgia, has ignored all Russian fears of the alliance reaching its close borders, whether east in Ukraine or south in Georgia.

A few days ago, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg spoke about the "New Normal in Europe", in reference to ignoring Russian fears of the alliance's expansion to the east and the alliance's willingness to annex Ukraine in the future.

On the other hand, Putin believes that the extension of the European Union, including one economic, fiscal, and customs umbrella, from which Russia is excluded, is another hostile move by the West.

On the third hand, Putin believes that the American calls to support and finance democratic transitions in the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics represent a great threat to the strong and central Russian state, and that their goal in the end is to overthrow the regime in Moscow, and replace it with a regime friendly to Washington and the West.

Putin considered that the democracy conference hosted by the Biden administration last December was an American re-division of the world, a return to the Cold War climate and a hostile step that Washington put Moscow and Beijing on the other side.

Putin repeatedly criticizes Washington and the West's claim that they respect international law, and reminds that America's invasion of Iraq and the NATO air strikes on Libya and Serbia were not accompanied by any commitment or concern by Western countries in the issue of international law and respect for the sovereignty and borders of countries when it comes to their interests.

Russian experts, who are crowded with American news networks, ignore Putin's exploitation of the state of Western weakness, and the absence of historical leaders who appreciate the scale and complexities of contemporary challenges.

Putin took advantage of the presence of an elderly American president whose popularity has fallen to less than 40% amid political division and polarization that the United States has not witnessed in its short history.

Putin is taking advantage of the desire of 74% of Americans not to play any prominent role in the ongoing Ukrainian crisis, amid economic deterioration and an unprecedented rise in inflation rates.

Putin took advantage of the presence of a British prime minister surrounded by internal scandals and parliamentary investigations, as well as the presence of a new German chancellor in power who came at the head of a coalition that included socialist and leftist parties that are not hostile to Russia and abhor wars.

Putin also took advantage of the presence of a French president who is only obsessed with his re-election in the coming weeks.

The West and America have ignored Putin's concerns since 2014, despite the deaths of nearly 14,000 Ukrainians in fighting between the regions of eastern Ukraine and the Kiev government.

The West was not satisfied with granting Ukraine the status of neutrality to become a neutral buffer zone between NATO and Russia. Putin used all his available tools to change a reality that he does not satisfy on the ground by using force, which unfortunately is the language that is easy for everyone to understand.