Thank you for your opinion and for interesting questions. Putinism has nothing to do with the legacy of tsarist Russia, which from the time of Peter the Great was a vast Europeanized empire. The Baltic Germans 120 years ago were even called the "second political nation" in Russia because they held all the most important positions in the tsarist administration. For all the enormous shortcomings of the “Old regime,” it was a facade of a European state based on law. In this sense, the political system in Russia before 1917 resembles the regimes that existed in Austria-Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and other non-democratic European countries. Putin's regime has nothing in common with this past. Although the Russian government often uses imperialist rhetoric, it is entirely a product of the Soviet system. Putin is a neo-Bolshevik leader, a modern heir to Joseph Stalin and his repressive machine. National Bolshevism, disrespect for the rule of law and internationally recognized borders (including boundaries of moral behaviour) are the basis for ideology and political practice of modern Russia.