It’s more nuanced that that - he definitely doesn’t want USSR back in terms of economical or political system as is, but he does want to bring back USSR in the name (to get legacy and accomplishments association) and get the same consolidated power to build the totalitarian oligarchy somewhat similar to USSR, but without some checks and balances that were still present even in USSR

I believe Singapore is liberal authoritarian, many of the original policies are progressive even to this day

Valve also said they are not willing to sell hardware at a loss so there is that

If you pay attention to what Russia does internally and externally, Russia fulfills every one of those requirements except the last one (because they can’t, but they would be very happy too)

Honestly can’t tell if it’s satire

That’s an interesting topic btw - what is the way for any dictatorship to work well for everyone’s benefit in theory? If it’s dictatorship of the wise, would smartest people get put into place with absolute power? Is it an expectation that people currently in power pass power voluntarily to wiser people? Would there be a framework that determines wisest people and it would be decided upon by the popular consensus? Isn’t it technically still a democracy if people trust in the framework/system that governs how smartest people are decided upon?