The Once and Future Soviet Union

   Vladimir Putin's hero is the bloodthirsty tyrant Josef Stalin.  Estase has argued for some time that the current Russian state is marking time until its population have forgotten the U.S.S.R., and will then resume its role as a Communist/totalitarian state.  Russia's closest strategic partner is Communist China, and its role as a bolster to the failed regime of Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela shows that Russia is still a Communist state at heart.
       With these things said, it's hard to understand why the American left is hysterical about Vladimir Putin.  Shouldn't Sean Penn be hanging out with him or something?