Putin’s nationalism trespasses against a pillar of true nationalism, which is that the nation belongs to the people, who deserve to govern themselves and not see the national wealth plundered by a ruling elite. Putin has gone to great lengths to see that there is no alternative to him. He immediately jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny after he had recovered from being poisoned (an unfortunate “accident” that befalls so many people inconvenient to Putin) and cracked down on the subsequent street protests. Meanwhile, Putin has seen that a band of associates have gotten very rich, making these loyalists a pillar of his regime.

While Putin sheathes himself in the symbols and rhetoric of the Orthodox Church, there is nothing genuinely Christian about his rule. Indeed, Russia persecutes unwelcome Christians, namely Jehovah’s Witnesses and Baptists. The alliance with Putin’s state has been corrupting for the Orthodox Church, though the arrangement is inarguably traditionalist — from the point of view of Russia’s long-running, deeply ingrained experience with authoritarianism.

There is something very strange about American conservatives finding things to admire about Putin, given how distinctively and unmistakably Russian he is.