Western "leaders" have consistently been incapable of understanding the threat Russia poses, but this is not really their fault. We vote for halfwit incompetents because they amuse us (Johnson) or tell us mindless soundbites (Trump, Le Pen) or are careful to be entirely innocuous (Scholtz). If we elect midgets, we cannot expect them to act like giants merely because an existential threat appears. Midgets will always be midgets, and if we vote repeatedly for midgets, our entire political class will be thus constituted. We get what representative democracy bequeaths, which is why it's such a lovely system - for aggressors seeking to exploit our endless weakness and irresolution.