Um, lurker, I don't profess to be an expert on the old Soviet Union or the current Russia. Not at all, this despite having lived in Berlin for almost 9 years.
But I know enough to know that Russia has a deep-seated distrust of Europe and, by extension, the "West", that goes back hundreds of years.
Russians respect power brokers. By contrast, they loathe weakness.
I don't believe I heard anybody say that the former Soviet Union is truly changed, except that Moscow embraced capitalism with the same kind of fervor that organized criminals embraced the city. (It doesn't mean that redistribution of wealth happened, however.)
Some of the political apparatus might have altered slightly to render the appearance of a more democratic system, but the Soviet Union hasn't really changed at all - just as the Soviet Union hadn't altered significantly in terms of values following the Red Revolution in 1917. They tore down the czarist structure, but what remained was ruthless power and a continued distrust of Europe/West.
I personally think that Putin has really only one consideration - that is to advance the cause of Russia and to restore her as a superpower. He happens to think also that he's the best person to lead his country toward that goal, but to think that Putin is insane or fundamentally different than his predecessors may not see the situation from the Russian side.
His personal values and disciplines are remarkable - he loathes alcohol abuse in a country that is awash in vodka and he keeps himself in fine physical condition. You can't say the same about Boris Yeltsin, and especially Leonid Brezhnev.