The problem is that we have heard it all before from Putin – another trained lawyer – at the start of his presidency, when he promised a “dictatorship of law,” military reform, land reform, and, consequently, a return of Russia’s agriculture dream, ruined by the post-1917 planned economy. Instead, he and his ex-KGB comrades-in-arms placed themselves above the law, abandoned meaningful social and economic reform, and coasted on high world oil prices.