You just said it: brand of fascism if anything.
Cant agree more: kremlin in fact conscientiously turned to national socialism of Hitler type.
It was in development for some time and now they got it right:
expect genocidal wars
National-socialism look-alike, IMO. More ‘Il Duce’ than ‘Mein Fuhrer’, and more fake than anything. Georgia was a staged show of force. Just enough to keep the West on their toes, and show any internal rivals that Putin is not to be messed with. Don’t get any sense of real ideological conviction or utopianism coming from him. He and his buddies aren’t interested in anything much beyond accumulating personal wealth, driving nice cars, and keeping up the obligatory dozen or so mistresses. The majority of Russians are positively sick of mass movements.
I think the real danger is a concerted effort between Russia and China to drop us to our knees, economically. We’ve been triangulating them against one another for decades. China depends on manufactured exports, and still needs us around for another 5-10 years. Russia does not.