Putin has become a global bogeyman. Russians must exorcise this ghoul | Simon Tisdall

Accursed, ostracised but heedless of the misery he causes, this accused war criminal is dragging his people into a moral abyss

Everyone wants a piece of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Vira Chernukha, defiant amid the ruins of her village in north-east Ukraine, curses him each morning. She wants to see him spinning in his coffin, tormented, unshriven and damned for all eternity. Chernukha might be said to speak for her nation if not the entire western world.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) wants to arrest Putin for war crimes, alleging mass child abductions. Mutinous Wagner mercenaries briefly wanted to topple his regime - and gravely weakened him. Heroic opposition leader Alexei Navalny just wants him to shut up. He's been forced to listen to the same Putin speech in jail each day for more than 100 days.