There was a time when Vladimir Putin seemed to see himself, not as the head of a re-created Soviet state, but as a czar — an omnipotent monarch ruling over a quiet, subservient, grateful populace. “The monarch doesn’t have to worry about whether or not he will be elected, or about petty political interests, or about how to influence the electorate,” Putin said in “First Person,” a biography published in 2000. “He can think about the destiny of people and not have to be distracted by trivialities.” When the biographer asked him whether the return of monarchy in Russia was possible, Putin answer…