Yesterday, on his 72nd birthday, Russian President Vladimir Putin was called "tsar" by some supporters, who claim that the former KGB spy raised Russia from its knees and will ensure victory against the West in the war in Ukraine.
"God save the tsar," wrote the ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin, who has long advocated the unification of Russophone and other territories into a vast new Russian empire, which, according to him, must include Ukraine.
"Putin rules the country confidently and calmly. And that's how it will always be - well, almost always," Dugin added in a birthday greeting posted on his Telegram channel a few minutes after midnight.
Unlike most Russian leaders throughout history, Putin has no obvious successor. He also has no serious rivals, several Russian sources told Reuters.
It is now embroiled in what Russian officials call the most difficult conflict with the West, whose combined economies are at least 20 times the size of Russia's, since the height of the Cold War.
Opponents say early failures in the invasion showed Russia's weakness, although US generals say Moscow quickly learned from its mistakes and adapted to the demands of Europe's biggest land armed conflict since World War II.
According to a report published yesterday by the Moscow consulting company Minchenko, Russians increasingly see Putin as a figure who managed to reshape the global order in their favor.
"In domestic politics, every year Vladimir Putin takes on completely new features of the archetypal image of the Creator, who is creating a new world order in which Russia will play a completely new role," the report states.
Russian forces are advancing in Ukraine, and Putin has increased defense spending to Cold War levels.
Currently, Russia controls a little less than one-fifth of Ukraine - including Crimea, which was annexed in 2014, about 80 percent of the Donbass and eastern Ukraine, about 71 percent of the Kherson region and 72 percent of the Zaporozhye region.
Opponents of Putin and his regime have either left Russia, died or are silent. The Russian opposition, which is almost all abroad, is divided and unable to find a new leader after the death of Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison in February.
Navalny described Putin's Russia as a fragile criminal state run by thieves, sycophants and spies, who only care about money. He has long predicted that Russia could experience seismic political upheavals, including revolution.
"We will win with Putin," Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian parliament, said yesterday. "A strong president means a strong Russia".
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