I won't dispute that...the most intellectually honest thing you've posted yet.
If you said Putin would become a new Franco or Pinochet or Mousselini - I would not automatically attack that but you are fixated on the delusional "Soviet" angle.
I am not actually a "fan" of Putin. But I will defend errors and falsehoods. I do think the Russian cause in Chechnya is just (if the execution sloppy) and I do think that Russia under Putin has made positive growth away from the crippling legacy of the USSR.