The myth that Vladimir Putin wants to bring back the USSR persists, and with good reason. Putin’s intentions have a strong imperial whiff to them, illustrated in his apparent desire to reconquer some former Soviet republics—in his eyes, fake, half-legitimate states. Then there is his arrogance vis-à-vis what he views as inferior neighbors to the east, whose presidents’ names he doesn’t even bother to remember. Anonymous gossips with supposed ties to the presidential administration also claim that Putin is fond of his former KGB boss Yuri Andropov’s ideas. Andropov believed that entrepreneurship would do the Soviet people good, on condition of strict control, sobriety, and retention of all the socialist achievements.
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