Putin was provided multiple opportunities to play the liberal playbook. Yet he did not adopt the behaviours even though they may have been benefitial.
Quoting only two:
-At start of the war, many ukrainian fighters could have been labelled as illegal combatants, making the russian army's work way easier.
-about the potential genocide, Putin could have dressed the issue as a matter of preemptive strike. Russia could not wait for a blood bath to happen to stop the genocide just as the US did under GWB who declared that the world could not wait for the smoking gun or to receive evidences as a mushroom cloud.
In this regard, the position of Russia would be stronger than the US ever was as UKraine is leading policies of forced assimilation of minorities, up to the point that minorities from the liberal sides lodged official complaints to their related countries of ancestry, demanding them to intervene on the Ukrainian government so theirs rights as minorities are respected.
These forced assimilation policies could be construed as the signs of an incoming genocide, the first steps.
Nothing like that.
Probably something to learn from Putin's behaviour and reluctancy to adopt ways from the liberal playbook.