Putin is based, don't get me wrong, but he is admittedly corrupt in some fashion, probably a few different ways. But I doubt he'd go to this length and in such a blatantly obvious way.

The circumstances are just too, well, circumstantial: Biden, the big tough warmonger anti-Putin fuckbag gets elected, Syria is now going to go very hot very quickly, and the other superpower in Syria just happens to have large amounts of unrest back home that the liberal media elsewhere can simp for to turn opinion even worse. Sounds like WW3 waiting to happen.