Putin identifies with the founder of the Cheka. In some ways, his regime is more brutal, Russian historian said

From sentencing a citizen to 13 years for a bus stop graffiti and erasing court records to rehabilitating the architect of the 'Red Terror,' Felix Dzerzhinsky, Russia is rapidly backsliding into its most brutal Soviet-era habits. Russian historial Sergei Lukashevsky contends that Putin’s regime has adopted certain methods of governance that are historically familiar to the Russian bureaucracy, while appealing to Soviet nostalgia.