Vladimir Putin has ruled Russia for over two decades — and appears set to do so as long as he physically can. Much of support built up in the 2000s owed to his leadership’s role in pulling Russia out of the crisis left by his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. Yet he did this while consolidating an authoritarian state that allowed ever less dissent and quashed meaningful opposition by any means necessary. Independent political parties became nonexistent, while censorship and control over the media grew year by year.

Political repression has reached unprecedented levels since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, leading to the shuttering of the last independent media outlets, countless arrests of opposition figures, and an exodus of thousands more. The government’s constantly expanding list of “foreign agents” has seen its last public dissidents silenced, exiled, or imprisoned.

Yet as the Russian airwaves have become saturated with aggressive nationalism and xenophobia, the war has also seen a strange revival of Soviet imagery. This has led some foreign observers to conclude that Putin’s occupation of a neighboring country is somehow part of an anti-imperialist crusade.