You seem to have a very warped idea of how the Russian system works. It is in fact very legalistic. That is why Putin had to use Wagner in the Donbas: once they became part of Russia he was not legally allowed to deploy regular Russian troops on Russian soil. He had to get special legal permission.

That is also why he called his invasion a "Special Military Operation". Like US Presidents, he cannot unilaterally declare war, and declaring war brings with it certain legal precepts.

People tell me he is a thug and kills people, but no one ever provides any proof. It is always "assumed". All you need to do to frame Putin is kill someone with Novichuk (which is everywhere) and the US/UK media will scream PUTIN!

BTW what happened to the Skripals?

These stories pop up and stay in the news just long enough for everyone to get the impression that "Putin done it" and then they slowly go away and disappear for lack of evidence.

But if you want to see a real demonstration of a fascist, repressive, authoritarian state I ask you to look no further than Julian Assange. I can think of no greater possible totalitarian overreach as to indict a non-citizen for a crime that is written to prosecute citizens for treason. Assange is an Australian citizen and yet the US is trying to "extradite" him to the ~US to stand trial in a US court. How is that even possibly legal? Wikileaks servers are based in Australia, Sweden and other non-US countries, so any purported crime didn't even take place on US territory!