Agree. Maby not the last sentence, looking at the USA in the current state. With a government attacking the press every time they report critically, ordering equipments of mass surveillance of all their citizen from ICE and committing raids, where officers are by no means identifyable by citizens, so they have no legal responsiblity to their actions.

It seems as if at least the current US government has a big attraction to how Putin organizes his government. There are defnitly parallels to them suppressing their citizen, even when it is not yet at their level.