Russia seems to be the last place on Earth where straight white men with conviction make no apologies for it.
Putin is a real man's man.
I usually appreciate your insightful posts, Alaric, but as a West European Catholic I can't share your optimism concerning Russia and Putin in particular. Allow me to explain why.
That Putin opposes some of our enemies and puts on a strongman act via some
pseudo-manly topless poses, doesn't mean he's necessarily our friend. See the band-new divorce from his wife of nearly 30 years. Or see the wicked Pussy Riots getting Russian state awards until a few years ago.
Russia is theologically corrupted for more than a millennium now. This was an ideal base for the installation of communism in 1917, and it still is an ideal base for a national communism today. That's why Putin reintroduces these old communistic slogans and symbols (like the old title "working class hero", the old red star, the old Soviet hymn, the old history books, the old lie about the "peaceful Father Stalin" and his actions).
Clearly Putin's slowly reintroducing the old Soviet Union under another name, and soon we'll see some faked "Great Patriotic War" again (the original one was planned by Stalin long before the German preventive strike named Operation Barbarossa).
You're right that Putin opposes the international communism (globalists). But it's more a continuation of the old feud between brothers (Stalin and Trotsky). And before and in WW2 both communistic camps worked together to crush Europe; see the
Rakovsky protocol which Bishop Williamson mentions occasionally. We can't trust either side.
Heaven granted us Fatima to show the problem: communism spreading from Russia to the entire world (today EU & USA = international communism). It's a religious problem which can only be solved with supernatural help, as described in Fatima. Since we Catholics including our popes however decided to ignore Fatima, we brought WW2 and soon will bring WW3 upon the world.
It looks like Russia will again be a scourge of God to punish us Western apostates (that includes the USA). And as usual, then the scourge gets punished itself. Only when Fatima is fulfilled, Russia will be converted and Our Lady's hearth will triumph.
Until then, don't expect much from Russia or its presidents, expect for a very nasty invasion (see
Alois Irlmaier). Granted, that invasion is being provoked by the West, and it will wipe out our current apostate systems, and our systems truly deserve it. But it won't bring the solution. God will. His medicine will be incredibly bitter, but effective.