..a pretty Shitty Season’s Gratings (..such as truthiness oft manages to derail anyway?)
You’ve put it more succinctly than most-often I'd have managed; indeed Putin’s Poltroons Have won the--[obligatory Fucking- ]--Gold-plated pot-metal Ring, for the Present and foreseeable. Complexifying that accomplishment in The Craftsmanship of Evildoing are the Techno-in-hands-of-Idiots factors:

A) P. possesses advanced [miniaturized, ‘smart’ engines of destruction, already extant ] ..and like our Orange Menace, P. could never be accused of possession of any ‘moral-compass-thing’ whatsoever. Clearly he would ‘defend’ most attempts to roll-him-back: with that impulsive-ferocity of our own Troglodyte.

B) Already discussed in various places is the Long Record of dis-USA Presidential ploys (like war-with-Mexico: Get More Land™) based solidly on the many-times-tested *theory that: DISTRACTION from some political danger to the POTUS is best accomplished by starting-a-New-war, getting the flags & trumpets blaring, gaining kudos from the vox-pop—who prove repeatedly how easily Are these distracted unto idiotic-ends, after the marching bands deflect them from sports and pron.
* tested sufficiently to now be a Principle?

C) As clearly; This very day: The Menace is near-to-being Out-menaced, his epaulets ripped off, the Swinging-sword shattered and the Perp drummed outta The Corps(e). (Worst case for That one: HUMILIATED.. rears its Gorgon-head right-in-his puffy-orange-face, as we speak.) W.T.F. do We Think that this über-Madman would/Will! Do Next? (as he awaits impatiently the ramping-up of the now beckoning New Arms Race AND Our Own powerful-but-smaller/faster Death toys on-order??) Hmmm?

D) See C) What other lies/tricks/bribes/Dictats ‘lie’/no pun within his now scared-shitless purview? other than Save ME!!/screw the consequences for sanity ever returning locally, climate/planetary matters ever becoming a full-consensus-Action worldwide … [fill-in-Listicle].

[Bonus for ‘evangelicals’ of all stripes, jes evah er, a Pinin' fer the Fjords Rupturing-Out, to sit at the Right ‘hand’ of that-Thing-we-constructed (after too many bumps-in-the-night were too-ƒear-ƒull), to bear-without-a-crutch to lean on.]

tl;dr (all the above)
Indeed I currently believe that the Bulletin Clock should show ~ 1 picosecond-before-Midnight, even though that symbol is both too-sub-tull AND too-unKnown amidst the unTeachables everywhere. But (like that Restaurant at the Edge of the Universe© scenario), I deem it a privilege in having my popcorn/OK cashews and Moscato Amabile to-hand, having experienced already a sufficiency of cheated-death events and while still.. in possession of a not-noticeably infirm body-casing. What, Me Worry?

It’s gonna be a Hoot!! ..this alleged ‘2019', innit? :-)

PS-on-a-lighter note:
Just heard on BBC: 20% of Russians are at poverty level; alleged is that Putin's rep is suffering (and on the ^up-swing^). :-)
Ya just cannot-Tell ..about 2019. Yet.
('Course too; Orange Menace's Options curtail significantly after Jan 1. Full-Panic within next 12 Days: what. are. these Odds?)

:oTpy