Heads up everybody. Because Vladimir Putin's regime is busy looking for its next big idea.
The search is on for the next spectacle to captivate the nation and sanctify its ruler.
The hunt is on for the next blockbuster.
According to a recent report in the pro-Kremlin daily Izvestia, Russia's political spin doctors are looking for ways to boost interest in next year's presidential elections.
They want no less than a 70 percent turnout and they want Vladimir Putin to receive no less than 70 percent of the vote.
Put another way, they want nothing less than an unambiguous celebration of -- and coronation of -- Vladimir Putin as Russia's supreme leader.
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To do this they need to attach a larger significance and a larger meaning to an utterly predictable election.
And this significance, according to one Kremlin official, must be equal to that of Russia's annexation of Crimea.
The official added that the Kremlin was currently working on creating this significance.
This, to put it mildly, should worry Russia's neighbors. It should raise alarm bells from the Baltics to Belarus and from Ukraine to Georgia.
Because the Kremlin's big ideas -- from Kyym Nash to Novorossia -- often involve the revival of empire.
The Kremlin's big ideas usually mean their neighbors lose territory, or their sovereignty.
So the Kremlin is looking for its next big idea. And Russia's neighbors should be on high alert.
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