On a vaguely serious note, in a Bill Bryson book (I forget which one, but I think it was Notes From a Small Island) he said that if you were to say anything with enough enthusiasm it would be accepted as plausible and positive.
Having spent a night in a godawful B&B, he was asked by the receptionist on checkout how his stay had been. Chirpily he responded,
"Oh it was absolutely execrable!"
Which was met with something along the lines of,
"That's wonderful sir, thank you."
I suppose my rambly point in this is that if, and it's a big if, you buy into conspiracy theories about Russia then Putin is playing an absolute blinder at his game of Cold War Lite. He's not even a particularly good dictator. If you're going to massacre your own people, do it properly, like Pol Pot.