Let me just say that I greatly value your blogging over the years. It's a breath of fresh air. Western coverage of Russia is 100% propaganda but the simpletons over at RT are not much better. I realise your biases - you're open about them - but I much prefer that over feigned 'neutrality' which always end up in a monotone demonisation.

Now to my question. Putin strikes me as less of a nationalist than an imperialist. An imperialist believes in a larger, over-arching idea. Rome went from being a nation-state to an Empire, and being "roman" moved from an ethnic concept to a universal concept. Same is true with America.

In my view, if you're a Russian nationalist, then you should be against imperialism. This isn't to say that you don't want Russia to be strong(which is often confused with being an imperialist by naïve people). Because only nationalism will preserve the Russian nation(see the Central Asian immigration problem).

So, with such a large preamble, do you A) agree with my characterisation of Putin and B) what do you think are the chances of purely ethnic Russian(with some allowances for other ethnicities, as long as they meld into the larger Russian core) nationalism? I'm thinking post-Putin mostly given that he is in his mid-60s and is unlikely to change.