Perhaps, the thing with Russia is that it tends heavily towards the cult of personality. Perhaps more so than any other country across the 20th Century. It seems to bend itself around the leader - that was true of Lenin, Stalin, Kruschev, Gorbachev and is certainly true of Putin. I don't think the Russian population have ever really been freed from the yoke of tyranny for more than a few years at a time - but if transition towards a moderate could be achieved, the 1815 offer could become more like a 1945 German one.