[GSlob]

'But the fact is that he has created the kind of country... "
To create such kind of a country [ex nihil, or ex-anything else qualitatively different] would be to create the whole Huntingtonian civilizational identity - a feat of mythological proportions [Noah, or Deucalion/Pirrha]. So, unless gods and demigods are walking the earth and cuckolding the earthling hisbands, it is more logically consistent to say that the country [or rather, its sociological - Huntingtonian - civilization] has always been that way. Sometimes more latently, and sometimes more openly.

[JadeEmperor]

"logically consistent to say that the country [or rather, its sociological - Huntingtonian - civilization] has always been that way. Sometimes more latently, and sometimes more openly."

Same way, how far back? Back to the birth of Romanov dynasty? Ivan the Terrible, or even prince Vladimir's Kievan Rus?