Russia is more alike to our present political state than it is to communism now.
Putin's dictatorship is almost exactly the way the USSR worked since WW II. Communist in name only. More like organized crime than anything else.
No it's not. It is radically different with corresponding different social and political problems.
I don't want to distract from the Russia hysteria indulgence except to say that your comparing very different political situation today.
Russia is being run by a radically different set of circumstances than it was during the Socialist era.
It is no longer a state run capitalist planned economy. It is now an oligarchic run capitalist economy.
Wealth accumulation/disparity is unlike anything during the soviet era. Tax avoidance is similar to the U.S. as well, with billions of dollars being laundered thru banks. Much as it does in the U.S. and Europe.
