For Putin it is to be or not to be: to continue what he's been doing or to get Ceausescu'd. However, we mustn't forget that the Russian people have never experienced what it is to think for themselves individually, let alone nourish a civitas mentality of citizens contributing to a society of free individuals. Apart from the glimmer of democratic hope after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, multiple generations of Russians were always taught what to think and feel.