I think what you are seeing there more reflects the fact that Putin has no real ideology whatsoever. He does change course when events make clear that the current way of running things is untenable; but otherwise, he tends to stick (whenever possible) with the current way of doing things. Such pragmatism alone makes him leagues better than any other major post-Soviet leader, Lukashenko excepted. But it still doesn’t qualify him as a comrade, unfortunately.