He already is. From what I gathered from his speeches is that, unless he's lying his ass off, he's trying to put Russia economically on the map since the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Why would he want to have everyone's eyes peeled onto him? He's also one of the first international politicans who have bashed Globalism. Europe is doing a fantastic job of weakening itself by putting themselves into financial ruin through overly expensive medical programs. Europe is growing slower than Africa. If he wants to watch democracy weaken, all he has to do is nothing.