A healthy economy will do more to keep Russian territory intact than reverting to a totalitarian government will. At the same time, I think he will try to consolidate power in the central government and strengthen the military to help suppress any rebellions in the south or east of the country
If he doesn't clamp down hard enough, Russia will break up like the Soviet Union did. If he clamps down too hard, he will alienate Russians in all walks of life and cause what he wants to prevent. He has a very difficult balancing act ahead of him.
One is talking about hard-wired knee-jerk reflexes here, not of "balancing acts", which are not instinctive and "hard wired". The only things moderating knee-jerk reflexes are the available resources and other circumstances of the same nature.
I am afraid you are falling into "intelligent design" fallacy and attributing rationality and intelligence to largely instinctive actions, where no rationality or intelligence exist or are even needed.