If you push aside all judgements, moral abstractions, personal insults, labelling, ideological beliefs, even culture and technological inventiveness, what you see is a straight line of growth in terms of territory ruled over from a small village of Moscow on the outskirts of Kiev in the 9th century to a massive empire that ruled over 17 countries and Eastern Europe from in 1989, the largest congruent political land empire ever by far ruled over on an administrative level from a central autocratic leader. It’s hard not to say “yeah but” when thinking of that scale and the 1000 year’s of growth. Yet it’s worth pondering on for a few moments to understand Putin’s political viewpoint rather than personal judgement.