Introduction

There are different ways to characterize Vladimir Putin’s rule. Institutionally, it is widely referred to as an authoritarian, dictatorial, repressive, and, in many cases, totalitarian regime of “personalist autocracy” (Frye 2022, 11). Ideologically, it can be categorized as a generally illiberal, conservative regime with a peculiar form of Russian populism. It is often referred to as nostalgic of the Soviet Union (Sharafutdinova 2020, 5). Its aggressiveness towards neighbors and disrespect for their sovereignty are also widely discussed in the literature (Shinar 2017).