Yes, Putin is a socialist intent upon reviving the Soviet Union.
But damn I wish he was our President instead of the Obamanation.
We have a hell of a lot more in common with Socialist Russians than with these ISIS scum.
I would never call Putin a socialist. What he does is in context with three hundred years of Czarist rule. So, politically speaking, he *begins* as a Russian nationalist.
Then it gets odd. When the western Roman Empire fell, the seat of Christendom shifted to Constantinople. Then a split between the eastern and western churches began in 1053. Then when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, Moscow assumed that it would become the new seat of Christendom, but it shifted back to Rome.
But this has long burned the Russians at a very deep level. And Putin brought it back big time by hosting a conclave of all the Orthodox churches, but not the Roman church, in Moscow. This was so extraordinary that Putin might eventually be declared an Orthodox Saint, (except by the Ukrainian Orthodox), no joke.
The Russian military is also increasingly religious, and predominantly Orthodox, about 85% of those who profess to be religious, and has a growing corps of Chaplains. Importantly the vast majority are uneducated about their religion, but are comfortable with their declaration, as sanctioned by their higher command.
Putin himself goes out of his way to support the Russian Orthodox church, and to give them government favoritism.