You may be right, but those folks are becoming pretty old to
carry the weight of running a nation. The years are catching
up to all of them.
As for hardliners, there must still be some around as they
still don’t allow open elections any better than our 2020.
I get the feeling they still have 80-90% lopsided elections,
but I may be way off base on that. Putin is still around.
This is his 19th year.
Even if Putin lasts another 10 years, there may be another Putin waiting in the wings to seize power.
In the 90s, no one knew who was Putin. At the time, he was the deputy mayor of St. Petersburg.