"I HAVE not lost my commander's voice." So said Vladimir Putin in his speech at the congress of Moscow's ruling United Russia Party a few weeks ago.

It was classic Putinspeak, a perfect one-sentence reminder of what he stands for, articulated to resonate with an audience gathered to hear how the party should lead Russia into the future.

What is it about Vladimir Putin that makes him so scary? Already, courtesy of his redoubtable PR team, we all know Russia’s strongman is an expert marksman, scuba diver, pilot, black belt judo exponent and the sort of all-round action anti-hero that makes John Rambo look like Richard Madeley. But what of the real Vladimir Putin, his motives and aims?

Clues to that end came again a few days ago in the shape of an article in Izvestia newspaper in which Mr Putin outlined his first foreign policy initiative as he prepared for a shoo-in presidential election in March next year that would once again make him king of the Kremlin.

The article, which detailed Mr Putin’s plan for a new global power bloc, the Eurasian Union, based on the territory of the former Soviet Union was, of course, nothing more than a pipe dream. To begin with, many of the 15 republics that once made up the Soviet Union are already spoken for in terms of such economic and political ties.

The Baltic States, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are already members of the European Union. And, if my recent memories of a small but very nasty war in 2008 after a falling-out between Moscow and Tbilisi over South Ossetia serve me correctly, it will be a long time before Georgia has any desire to come into the Russian fold.

While a pipe dream it may be, what Mr Putin’s talk of a Eurasian Union did was showcase his credentials as a man destined to make Russia great again. A greatness that, should his Eurasian vision ever become reality, would see his nation dominate about one fifth of the Earth’s surface with an internal economic market of almost 300 million people. Hokum it might be, but music no doubt to the ears of those Russian nationalists who see Mr Putin as Mother Russia’s saviour incarnate. And this is where Mr Putin is genuinely scary, in his enduring popularity and ability to touch a political nerve in a nation where many still hanker after notions of a past paternalism and powerful grandeur.

That said, not all Russians are duly impressed by the man, with some already warning of what lies ahead under his rule.

Others are not hanging around to find out and are voting with their feet.

Online there are a number of websites devoted to those who are fed up with life in Russia, including one called Time To Shove Off. With Mr Putin having been in power for 12 years – the first eight as president, the past four as a prime minister with de facto executive power – many Russians dread what a return of his policies might bring to their lives.

“I want to live in a country where I don’t need to break the rules to live in comfort,” one young Russian was quoted as saying in a New York Times article a few days ago as he prepared to leave for a new life in Canada.

He has a point. If there is one thing Mr Putin’s rule has definitely created it is a state peopled by ex-KGB and FSB officers like himself, hell-bent on making money.

Many of those at the top tier of Russian power are Mr Putin’s friends, operatives from the military and intelligence services well versed in manipulating power, people and huge financial resources to their own ends. And what financial revenues there are in this, the world’s largest exporter of oil and gas.

As The Guardian’s now expelled Moscow correspondent Luke Harding makes clear in his recent book Mafia State, few of the profits from these natural resources make their way into improving Russia’s infrastructure. Instead they are siphoned off “via intermediary companies, off-shore schemes and sophisticated financial mechanisms”.

As if this was not bad enough, Russia under Mr Putin’s absolute and enduring rule will be no place to express dismay at such things. There is fat chance of any independent political opposition, judiciary, trade unions or a free and openly questioning press being able to flourish and grow. Mr Putin’s age-old apparatchiks – albeit disguised in new political clothing – will likely make sure of that.

What the Russian people will in the long term make of it all is, of course, another matter.

My colleague, former BBC Moscow correspondent and long-time Russia watcher Angus Roxburgh, has pointed out that some observers have even spoken of the Arab Spring as a warning of what could happen in Russia if Mr Putin’s corrupt and incestuous political rule prevails while living standards falter.

As Mr Putin again heads for the presidency he knows too there are many other challenges looming, ranging from managing the reopening of the country to foreign investment, to the United States gaining ground after getting itself out of its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. To that end, Mr Putin’s foreign policy approach will likely present two faces, attracting non-Russian investors back into the country and looking more democratic, all the while being carefully managed behind the scenes.

During his United Russia Party congress speech a few weeks ago Mr Putin reiterated how he had been tasked with ensuring the Russian armed forces are modernised and prepared for what is to come in the next five years.

In doing so he and the Kremlin have laid down a marker, showing they intend to put up the strongest front possible in the face of any challenges. Vladimir Putin has certainly not lost his “commander’s voice”, and few doubt we will be hearing a lot more of it in the years ahead.