20 Years of Putin: The pinnacle of power and the fear of losing it

I have my personal theories on just who Putin "really" is, and how he came to power (despite his KGB career indicating it should've been unlikely, if not impossible). I spent close to five years researching the history of Russia between the late 1890s to the present... and I'll say this much; there's very likely a great deal we don't openly know. When I self-published a work of "fiction" which elaborated on those theories... I actually received word from certain entities within the UK not to use certain names/places...a request I complied with. This only served to support my theories, and lend credence to my assertion that Vladimir of the "Road"'s story began more than a century ago with a man who's name means one who has definitively left the "Road". This is one (of many) reasons I try to advocate the notion that the Russian Federation is a VERY different animal than the USSR... and our foreign policy regarding them should take that into account.