While benefitting from free trade policies and major corporations, Vladimir Putin and his United Russia Party dictatorship pushed back against the neoliberalism and capitalism.
"You know that I, like millions of Soviet citizens, over 20 million, was a member of the Communist Party of the USSR and not only was I a member of the party but I worked for almost 20 years for an organization called the Committee for State Security," Putin said, referring to the KGB.
"I was not, as you know, a party member by necessity," he said. "I liked Communist and socialist ideas very much and I like them still."
Putin in his own words
"You know that I, like millions of Soviet citizens, over 20 million, was a member of the Communist Party of the USSR and not only was I a member of the party but I worked for almost 20 years for an organization called the Committee for State Security," Putin said, referring to the KGB.
"I was not, as you know, a party member by necessity," he said. "I liked Communist and socialist ideas very much and I like them still."
Very true! Thanks for sharing.
It would've made more sense if after the end of the cold war Russia was invited to join NATO.
Yeltsin would have agreed and Putin also expressed his regret many times, most recent in the interview with Tucker Carlson.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/stone-interviews-putin-says-asked-russia-joining-nato