Long post, but you are incorrect on many things..

Putin is the power behind the throne.. Anyone who crosses him is jailed or done away with.. As was the case with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of Yukos oil company.

In 1996, anti Putin journalist, Anna Politkovskaya was assasinated..

Putin has "rehabilitated" Stalin and played on the nationalistic theme by trying to enforce Russia's past traditions of authoritarian rule.