Ukrainian tanks near the frontline in eastern Ukraine. The intellectual rottenness of Putin’s kleptocratic regime is matched by the rottenness of its military. The scouring of Russia’s prison population for human cannon fodder tells its own story. Photograph: Lynsey Addario/The New York Times History does not repeat itself that often but there are many parallels and analogies available to those who need them to make rhetorical points for political purposes. Some of them are valid; others are monstrously invalid such as the claim by Vladimir Putin that the West or Nato started the Ukraine war, and that Russia has merely...