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This article aims to describe and analyze the internal dynamics and political rationale of Putinism in its historical evolution since 2000. In 2000, Putin set the goal of restoring Russia’s international prestige and role on the world stage, rebuilding the domestic institutional and economic prerequisites of great power status in the context of a globalized world. A centralization of power in the hands of the Russian President can be seen as a praetorian dynamic leading to the establishment of a loyal “praetorian guard” of men with their hands on the levers of both state and corporate power. An examination of the development of Russian praetorianism provides the thread that leads us to understand, in a concise manner, how power is being exercised in Putin’s Russia, and it allows us to provide, on the eve of the 2018 presidential election, a few lines of explanation regarding the future (or obsolescence) of Putinism.