It’s not that the Russians have become so nice, open, free, and democratic... They moved a little bit in a more free and democratic direction. Since about 2012 Moscow has moved a long way back into the USSR's suppression of individual freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc. Elections are an open joke, as Medvedev himself stated publicly. No legit opposition parties even exist anymore. Serious opposition candidates have been openly murdered, and that's not just Navalny. "Libel" of a government official or even a powerful oligarch is now a felony. Regional governments have been abolished. A Baptist missionary was arrested in the last month or so because only the Russian Orthodox religion can be practiced now. Although I suppose Islam is still permitted in the provinces.
...“if we don’t stop the Russians now they will keep going,” is utter nonsense. Not if you read their political and cultural guidestars like Dugin, Ilyin, and Gumilev, whom Putin has quoted regularly since ~2005. I've suggested "Putin's Brain" before, but it gets so snarled up in Heideggerian jargon that it's a tough read. "The American Empire Should Be Destroyed" by James Heiser is a lot more accessible to us laymen. I've only just run across Gumilev, so Alibris hasn't sent me any books on him yet. My source seems to see him as a rampant fascist.
bttt