by Sergey Markov
Putin as the tsar? Which tsar in Russian history is he comparable to?
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Patriarch Kirill has compared Putin with Alexander Nevsky. The logic here is that Nevsky repelled the West’s attack on Russia. Putin has the same task.
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Putin often associates himself with Prince Vladimir, the baptizer of Rus’. Logic is: Putin erected a monument to him near the Kremlin and right where he himself enters the Kremlin, as if he were his guardian angel.
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The opposition often compares Putin to Ivan the Terrible. Logic: the same repressions. And the KGB-FSB are like Ivan’s guardsmen.
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The West compares Putin with Stalin. They say omnipotent and repressive.
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Patriots in Russia demand that Putin be like Alexander the Third. That is, build an empire on your own national basis.
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And the population of Russia would like Putin to be like Brezhnev. And this, by the way, is the Chinese ideal of a ruler: he does nothing, and everyone lives very well because of it.
