Poll: 37% of young Russians want to restore the monarchy

[Crumpets]

This might not be as bad of an idea as it sounds. Part of the problem with a presidential system with a single head of state and government is that it causes people to project a great deal of symbolism onto a job that really requires a lot of concrete and un-glorious work. You get presidents like Trump who "represent" something people want to see, and you get Presidents who are criticized for being "unlikeable" because people don't want to have a beer with them.

Putin knows this, and has managed to play up his symbolic role in Russia to such an extent that he is given massive leeway to do pretty much anything he wants in terms of actually running the government and formulating policy. With a figurehead monarchy in place, it gives the role of the elected government a much clearer role and the people a greater sense of agency when it comes to choosing their elected officials, which in turn forces those officials to produce results and improve people's day-to-day lives, rather than moving borders a few hundred miles so Russia will look on a map more like what it did in the good old days.

[Crumpets]

One important point to acknowledge here is that, should Russia decide to return to a monarchy, there is a succession dispute as to who the current monarch would be between Maria Vladimirovna and Andrew Romanov, who interestingly enough, actually lives in Marin County, California. He was also born just three weeks after the founding of the USSR.