"In recent weeks, the western public has been obsessed with the question “What goes on in Putin’s mind?” Western pundits wonder: do the people around him tell him the whole truth? Is he ill or going insane?"

Note the way Žižek couches this: The "Western Public" are apparently obsessively wondering about Putins sanity...whilst "pundits": are merely giving expert advice on the concerns raised and voiced by the public.

.. Its a remarkable reversal of cause and effect.

The western media: "Pundits" as Žižek more neutrally terms them, are actually running a particularly intense version of the standard personalities propaganda: demonising the official enemy as a hate figure...depicting him as deluded, insane, ill, in order to convince the public that this is so.
As we are all pretty much aware at this site, this is done to effectively give carte blanche and indeed build public support for any actions the western elite want to take against Russia.

If Žižek had half a brain he would know this. I presume he has and does and that the deliberately misleading nature of his framing above points to the fact that he's accepted a role as yet another Western propaganda tool.