Putin - Beloved Tsar or cynical authoritarian despot?

I believe his conversion was sincere. I listened to him give a speech on the importance of faith, and while I realize speeches don't prove anything, it was quite convincing-- I found it convincing, anyway.

That's not to say I don't think he's ruthless, because I believe he is.

The Russians, as a people, seem to accept and even demand autocratic leaders. Stalin and Ivan the Terrible are stil hugely popular there. Putin seems to meet this preference. I like him as a defender of the nation state and resister of liberal values.

We should note that non-Orthodox evangelization is actually illegal in Russia, so there is certainly a dark side.

www.christianitytoday.com/news/2016/june/no-evangelizing-outside-of-church-russia-proposes.html

Peter Hitchens gave a good lecture on this subject. "Why I Like Vladimir Putin":

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeO44STvnJw

He is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. 

The main differences for me are twofold:

1) Mussolini and Hitler were open about their expansionist ambitions.
2) Putin has led Russia for almost two decades now and I don't see any reason to think he has expansionist ambitions beyond controlling the "near abroad"-- the Russian sphere of influence. Which seems a pretty standard expectation in Russia.

To be fair with the Ukrainian situation: Part of the deal with letting the Ukraine go after the USSR fell was promises to Russia that neither Ukraine would join NATO nor would it be courted by NATO. Fast forward to the twenty tens and if you didn't think something was up with the Ukrainian revolution, you were not paying attention. The previous democratically elected president was a corrupt asshat, there's no defending him on that, but Russia's motivations during that entire crises vis a vis the embarrassing nakedness with which Western politicians supported and visited Ukraine to support the revolution (I think even Bill Clinton visited them during that time, or was it John Kerry? I forget, some prominent western figure I remember that much) I think its clear to see why Russia did what it did, even going so far as to negotiate a proper deal where the president would step down and not stand for re-election in order to bring peace tot he country and not oust the current regime. Not a week later there was a palace coup, after which the new Ukrainian government went nationalist, pro-EU, Pro-NATO and the eastern Ukrainians who are ethnically, linguistically and culturally Russian started feeling nervous. Its not that Russia is right in that instance, its that no-one is. And I am not about to agree to calling Putin a bully with a thermo-nuclear arsenal after decades of western interventionism and economic tyranny with America's unquestioned hedgemony on the world to compare it to. Putin's open speculation on nuclear destruction is what it is: tough talk and brinkmanship, we've literally seen a half century of such posturing. China does it, America does it, and currently North Korea is doing it but in a much more dangerous way with its missile tests. Given the USSR is gone, and NATO effectively has no reason to have so many American bases in everyone's countries, its understandable Russia feels perpetually threatened and has take what it can get in terms of realpolitik. It isn't moral, it isn't right, but when you're surrounded by NATO bases and constantly at odds with the global monetary hedgemony that controls the worlds only remaining superpower, its understandable. He is not a Hitler, or a Mussolini, he is exactly what Russia has always had: The Russian Strongman. Its really nothing new.

It's the leaders with the egos who are making nuclear threats. North Korea, Russia and now sadly the USA .

China has up to recently a relatively small defensive detterent and was the only nuclear power with a no first strike policy.

Why are people who suffered under communism in the old Warsaw pact and who requested NATO protection ignored? No one forced the Poles the Czechs the Hungarians the Latvians the Bulgarians the lithuanians and the Estonians to join NATO. The west stabbed Poland in the back at Yalta and aĺlowed a shameful surrender of eastern Europe to the tender mercies of Stalin. Some Russophiles seem to think this was somehow ok as it was Russia's backyard. Russia's backyard is not a moral concept nor part of international law.
Do Russian diplomats ever talk to western politicians or ordinary citizens? The idea of a western threat from a pacifist Europe is laughable.

Similarly the US is stained with its appalling record in "its backyard". It's ridiculous blockade of Cuba is actually keeping a communist regime going. If they want to destroy Castro ii then allow free trade.