I am afraid the show trial bit is a message to the west

That's a weird interpretation. Sincerely weird. It never would have occurred to me. What's the message? I'm the boss? People already knew that, if they'd been paying attention.

Putin stung? Where did you get that weed?

Do you think he would have risked so much political capital on the affair if it had been beneath his notice? Yes, I believe that the alliance of his political power with the Church is important to him,  he intended to punish those who challenged it in order to reassure his conservative nationalist base. I think he underestimated the domestic backlash. I don't think that international opinion matters a shit to him.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}