Well, a direct invasion of the US is a bad option and the world knows this.
The problem is with Russia is state controlled media. If Putin was eliminated, the world probably wouldn’t know for at least a week and that would give their media enough time to tell the public who else they should like instead. It wouldn’t surprise me if there is a pre-recorded video of Putin “stepping down” or “retiring”.
If you have ever watched Russian state media, you will see they are probably worse than the Ministry of Truth. Their panel discussions are disgusting, actually. Four or five different people, with four or five different “views” that all converge on the same exact points: West evil, Putin god, Russia war machine invinsible, Russians have the best society on earth, everyone else is a nazi.
(I don’t want to exclude the rest of the worlds media either. Most major outlets have their own agendas for sure, but Russians probably get the most blatant version. They don’t even hide it.)