Yes. It wasn't inevitable that Russia would take this route. There were a few years of freedom, but with a broken economy. Then the era of the oligarchs. That didn't work out too well either. So now there's a strongman.
That it would be a strongman who wants to go back to the era of the tsars was unexpected.
That it would be a strongman who wants to go back to the era of the tsars was unexpected.