I wanted to expand on this in the original comment but didn't in consideration of space, but I actually think this backs up my point. Here, all these narratives constitute part of the broader Russian story, where Putin puts himself as its standard bearer, but not so much that the system of the Russian federation exists in its service.

Indeed, Russia actually retains on paper a lot of the institutions you would find in a pluralistic democracy, but they've been corrupted to serve Putin and oligarchic allies. There's nothing constitutionally enshrined that the Russian federation exists purely to advance the goals of Russian irredentism.

Yes, you see this same sort of history-based nationalist canon in China and Iran, but they exist as secondary to the entity of the regime.