Last but perhaps most telling, the election campaign turned into a gigantic exercise of building Putin up as a nearly mythical savior-of-the-nation icon of the type known as "cult of personality" in the Stalinist era.
An iconoclastic seeker-type with an enthusiasm for all things outdoors and motorized, he is a uniquely American icon, however: Call him Siddhartha on a Harley (or on an Indian).