It was not supposed to be this way. Not in the mind of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, anyway.

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entering its fourth week, as my colleague Steiff reported on Thursday, Putin delivered a speech to the Russian people that at times sounded confident and reassuring, other times desperate and suspicious of his own people — even to the extent of threatening the “scum and traitors,” and a “self-cleansing to purge the bastards and traitors.” (“Uncle Joe” Stalin come to mind?)

The bottom line? Putin knows he’s in a spot.

So what’s a guy in a spot to do? For one thing, Putin on Thursday laid out his latest demands —which look a lot like his former demands — for a cease-fire during a call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The question is, is Putin in a position to demand anything from anybody, or is he doing irreparable harm to himself and his country?

As reported by the BBC on Friday, a Turkish official who listened to the call between the two leaders said Putin would end his invasion if several conditions are met including a promise that Ukraine will remain neutral and not join NATO.

Prior to the collapse of talks between Russia and Ukraine, Putin issued the following six demands:

No NATO membership and a neutral position.

Russian should be the second official language of Ukraine, with laws prohibiting it abolished.

Recognize Crimea as Russian territory.

Recognize the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Demilitarization of Ukraine and abandonment of weapons that could be a threat to the Kremlin.

Banning of ultra-nationalist parties and organizations [“Denazification”] in Ukraine.

Erdogan’s leading adviser and spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, told the BBC Putin is also asking for face-to-face negotiations with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to hammer out his demands with Zelenskyy. This is odd, given that Zelenskyy has repeatedly asked, pleaded, and demanded that Putin sit down with him “like a man” and tell the Ukrainian president what he wants — what it will take — to end the brutal invasion.

Kalin also said there were other demands Putin listed, about which he didn’t go into detail, but they likely involve pro-Russian territories in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. Kalin “assumed” Putin will ask Ukraine to give up territory in the east and formally recognize Crimea, which Russia illegally “annexed” in 2014 as a part of Russia.

The demands are in line with previous reports that Putin has told Ukrainian officials he will end his invasion if six major conditions are met.

So as I asked at the top, is Vladimir Putin in a position to make demands? Consider the following recent RedState headlines.

Analysis: Risk Grows as Russian Army Told They Are Fighting ‘the USA Inside Ukraine’

Are We Witnessing the End of Vladimir Putin?

Top General in Putin’s Personal Army Is Arrested by FSB

Putin’s vision of a quick, tidy little “visit” into Ukraine in which citizens would take to the streets to welcome “liberating” Russian soldiers, Zelenskyy’s government would fold up like a cheap suit, the little dictator would install a puppet government, and all would be well did not happen.

Putin is in a quagmire and he knows it. The question is, what will he ultimately do in perhaps a desperate attempt to extract himself from that quagmire? While Vladimir Putin has been on the world stage, often front and center, for nearly a quarter-century, there’s much the outside world doesn’t know about the guy.

Does he make major decisions completely on his own or does he rely on — or even get — input from others? Do people bring him bad news he might not want to hear? If so, does he pay attention to it?  Finally, does he think he’s always the smartest guy in the room? If so, is he capable of admitting his mistakes and changing course? We could go on.

The answers to these and other questions are paramount to not only trying to understand what makes Putin tick but also in predicting what he might do if really backed into a corner. I’m not an expert on geopolitics, Russia, Ukraine, or Vladimir Putin. That said, it does not appear to me that presently, Mr. Putin is in a position to demand anything from anybody. The more he continues his rape of Ukraine, the more he becomes a pariah in the eyes of much of the world.

The more damage Putin does to the Russian military, the Russian economy, the stability of his own government, and most importantly in his mind, his image and legacy; both of which he has obsessed over for decades to the point of compulsion, and a fair amount of delusion and unattainable visions of grandeur, the more unpredictable he very well might become. So the demands keep coming.

If the point comes when Vladimir Putin sees no possibility of declaring a win — even a “win” concocted to look like a real win — all bets are off and things just got scary as hell.