There are a handful of elderly Russian historians (who were Soviet dissenters) that have been warning about this and more since the moment Vlad Putin stepped into power in 2000 - to no avail - and with little heed to their warnings paid either by their compatriots or Western hearers.
Peter Hitchens is clueless. He is a pampered Westerner living in a bubble even when in Russia and thinks the West’s inadequacies give one license to pray Putin’s *faux* front of “Christianity” and “political incorrectness.”
In actuality: Putin’s regime is Stalin part II tailor fit and adjusted for the new globalized information era. And he wants the Cold War back and has convinced his people that the USSR collapse is conditionsl and must be avenged.
Typos.
Praise* not pray.
Conditional*
Putin might drag Russia back into the soviet model, but Russia is slowly becoming more and more irrelevant on the world stage through demographic suicide. Which, probably makes Russia very dangerous.