Putin could have been a hero to many people, including me, if he would have created property rights and rule of law and made Russia into a conservative alternative to the West. The opportunity was enormous.

I now realize this was impossible, and my hopes were completely naive. Putin is incapable of doing this, and the Russian idea needs to change on a very fundamental level before they will see property rights and rule of law to be in their interest.

Right now, the Russian idea is threatened by these western institutions. (As it should be, because the idea is rotten as hell.)

The Soviet Union never finished collapsing. It needs to.