That's wishful thinking, thinking that we've relied upon before but been left dissapointed.
The overriding history of Russia and culture is one of power and strength. unlike us, they do not partake in the self flagellation of themselves over guilt of their history, they, the people, revel in the historical power of the USSR and most people want to see a return to it. And a big portion of the younger generation also do - those that don't have mostly left and live elsewhere in the world leaving a small portion who are more modern in their outlook, but plenty revel in their history. The one things the Russians are good at is propaganda. They are the masters at it and wield it like a super weapon. The Russian people don't understand the concept of democracy, self determination, freedom of thought, speech and expression...they've never known that in their entire history. It's just an alien concept for vast swathes of the population. The whole thing around glasnost and perestroika failed and we also saw the Arab Spring fail...we naively thought that if you give oppressed people just a glint of a chance of freedom then they'd grasp it and take it....but actually the opposite was true and all it did was pave the way for a change of one dictatorship for another, more brutal, dictatorship.
Those lying in wait to take over from Putin are just as bad if not worse than Putin so don't hold your breath that there is a wave of young rebels itching to take over to usher in a brave new era for Russia. For a start there is not enough of them and they've seen what happens when you stand up and offer up an opposition...this is just wishful thinking from the west...
The longer the war goes on the more it plays into the hands of Russia. We're not going to continue to support Ukraine forever and there is no military victory on the cards for anyone. It's impossible for Ukraine to win militarily...all they can do is repel the attacks from Russia. The only way out of this is a negotiated end and that cannot be initiated by Putin or Biden, so we have to wait for a new US President that will pave the way for toppling Putin. This wont be allowed to be a humiliating defeat for Russia so we have to give them an out at some point.
This is a land grab for Russia....they see Ukraine moving more towards Europe and NATO and see that as a threat and want to protect their boarder. Russia is a vast land and difficult to defend due to its sheer size so they rely on natural features like mountain ranges that make a land invasion difficult, most of which reside in Ukraine. This is the reason they grabbed Crimea, for its strategic importance to the Russian Navy for the Black Sea. Russia is not going to give this up...it's utterly fundamental to them being able to protect their national boarders..or at least feel they can. There will be a negotiated end to this eventually and the cost will be ceding Ukranian territory to Russia, with possibly a commitment never to allow Ukraine to join NATO.
