Declaring himself a modern Peter the Great, Putin offers a new threat to Estonia

Increasingly imbued with a mythology of destiny that his fate and Russia’s are inextricably linked, Vladimir Putin declared himself a modern Peter the Great on Thursday.

Peter the Great was the early 18th-century Russian czar whose expansionist policies, administrative and military reforms, and cultivation of an intelligentsia helped Russia become a great power. Contemporary Russian nationalists such as Putin celebrate Peter as a leader of destiny who boldly seized territory and power for Russia and who laid the groundwork for what would become a geopolitical powerhouse.