Everyone agrees that we are missing some key information that would explain this. I don’t know what it is any more than the rest, but we should bear in mind that the missing factor could be incompetence. Russia’s power structure is complex and delicately balanced. Putin has gone to great efforts to insure that no one knows everything. More than one of the players may have badly miscalculated, resulting in the current mess.
I’m just glad they said “can” and not “would”.
I’m also vegan, which would add another layer of complication. I can’t eat the piano if those are real ivory keys. ;-)