Another possible view is that a large part of the problem in Russia is the massive, unchecked centralization of power and distributed, smaller governments would be better in this case.
The centralization is not the problem, the problem in Russia is that a single individual wants to force its will over the ones of many. People are scared to voice their opinion and you are painting it as something desirable. Talk about individualism. What a lot of people and you miss to understand is that the majority is made up of individuals it's not an abstract mass it's a lot of real people that collectivly tell you to get lost.
Could you point to the words that I've used which left an impression that I think anything about Putin or Russia's recent actions are something desirable?
If I've somehow left that impression, I wish to correct it.