Vladimir Putin’s 2022 escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war reveals how power functions in the post-Soviet era Russia. Understanding this war as a global and regional conflict underwritten by longer-term historical and cultural factors is crucial to analyzing whether this war is exceptional or is part of a larger pattern that is redefining politics. Putin’s invocation of the Pan-Slavic movement of the early nineteenth century gives a new shape to an old form of populist agitation which stands in tension with the classic state building question of a “grand strategy”. Based on the premise that Putin may be engaging simultaneously in alliance building at a regional level, in an aggressive nationalist re-engineering of Slavic cultural ideals, and in a post-Cold War reimagining of empire, this thesis analyzes the national, international, transnational neo-populist and imperial/geo-political forces at play not just in the war, but in the actions of Russia’s leader as a kind of model for the present. This thesis studies how changing notions of politics relate to changing notions of (a particularly destructive kind of) leadership. Putin’s actions will be viewed through multiple leadership theory lenses insofar as a working characterization of Putin and his media image may be created, but also as a working hypothesis for understanding why the Russo-Ukrainian war is being conducted the way it is. Critical analysis of the forms of nationalism that Putin is weaponizing for political gain will offer new insights regarding how nationalism as a form of rhetoric has evolved since the 20th Century.