The slaughter of the politically indifferent and who never saw the real value of liberal democracy. Politics has a way of reaching out and touching the politically indifferent and bigoted in a most unpleasant way. Vlad wanted to make Russia great again too, instead he and his cronies just ripped everybody off and drove Russia into the ground while preaching nationalism, imperialism and bigotry. None of them cared about politics, they would leave the state alone, if the state left them alone, it's every person for themselves and not functioning properly as a successful society.
The idea of having a big continental Russian empire composed of autonomous states and territories in eastern Asia needs to go if Russia is to become a liberal democracy. Liberal democracy and other viable political parties in these republics and regions will mean dissolution eventually. So, the price paid for empire must be individual and political freedom or The Russian federation/empire would fly a part and the main job of the large federal internal security apparatus is to see that it doesn't. Moscow is not the only place in Russia political opponents are suppressed, murdered or imprisoned.