I hadn't heard about anyone becoming officially an emperor recently. Who are you referring to?

Putin obviously. And no, "formally" he is surely a elected president. Just one who talks about and compares himself to the great emperors of russian past a lot and acts pretty much the same.

Okay, so when you said official, you meant unofficial. Got it. I'm with you completely on the rest of it.

No, I meant de facto official. Putin is de facto a emperor, just not de jure. (but not need to further do pedantic semantics ..)

That's now how "official" works. ;)

Keep up with times man. "de facto" now connotes "de jure" just as "literally" connotes metaphorically.

Good luck with that. ;)