As evil goes, Hitler is superlative. Comparisons of political opponents or global adversaries to the infamous dictator are fraught with the possibility of oversimplification, and face rightful scrutiny. 77 years after the horrors of WWII, “Nazi” is an accusation that’s lost some of its heft thanks to overuse, and labeling someone “like Hitler” is more often an expression of disapproval or attempt at baiting, not actual equivalence. But I do not believe this is the case with Putin, who is proving by the day to be the beer hall corporal’s spiritual successor. I also believe he should be answered with the same resolve, meet the same demise, and likely will.

The story of the 20th and 21st century is the story of a global trend toward democratic, secular, free-market societies. By virtue of economics and humankind’s innate desire for individual freedom, not to mention the more recent explosion of information vis a vis the internet, it is clear that eventually (albeit this a long eventually) most nations will find themselves looking something like Western representative democracies, because that’s how most people aspire to live, provided they know their options. This transition is a lurching one, very much two steps forward one step back, and riddled with detours, violence, and existential threats, but the pattern is there. So is the data – and it’s overwhelming. Unless you’re the incumbent regime, it’s hard to argue quality of life is better in Russia, Iran, North Korea or Cuba when compared to Japan, South Korea, Israel or Germany. And how many people are trying to immigrate into Venezuela?

It's a story told at different paces. Dozens of countries have a long way to go in the human rights or fair and free elections department. Some grapple with the lingering handicaps of post-colonialism, others with longstanding ethnic divides or deep-seated corruption. Most are poor, a few are fossil fuel rich, and almost all are ruled by a rotating cast of strongmen. But by and large – and this is a crucial distinction – their problems stay inside their own borders. We might chafe at rumors of bad behavior, the UN occasionally issues sanctions, but the average dictatorship in the 21st century doesn’t have a philosophical backbone or the reach to export one. There is no larger worldview at play, just self-preservation. Not so in the case of Putin’s Russia.

Like his contemporaries in China or Iran, Putin doesn’t represent mere despotism, but an ugly experiment in alternatives. He would refute my earlier assertion, of a gradual trend towards democracy, and counter that such an American worldview is neither a given nor desirable. In Putin’s book, individual freedom has diminishing returns, outright democracy is inefficient and the West’s culture of political correctness and ultra-understanding makes its people soft. This is what must be grasped about the man’s mentality, and what makes him so dangerous: there is a thesis behind his warmongering. Allowed to run against alternatives, his model for society isn’t faring well, so he’s making his case in blood.