"...Putin "is a once in a hundred years political phenomenon" and no one will be able to fill his shoes."

Frankly, this. Regardless of one's feelings about his policies, rational observers must acknowledge that he has been able to forge a path that has ever strengthened Russia and forestalled it's enemies; his enemies.

I recall the Georgian assault on Ossetia, and the bankster plot to radically inflate the price of oil that depended on Russia seizing the vulnerable Baku pipeline juncture a mere 3 kilometers south of the Ossetian border. I believe that plot was the entire purpose of that military aggression, in fact.

However, as massive derivative orders prepared profits for those in the know in advance, Putin studiously ignored the pipeline, and the price of oil fell internationally by a significant amount, where it has remained for more than a decade. I have maintained that people everywhere owe Putin a debt of gratitude for those low prices, and that event revealed his savvy and highly competent ability to rule Russia.

Thanks!