We don’t need to like Vladimir Putin. We don’t need to admire him. But we do need to acknowledge that Russia has moved on from the evils of socialism, even as we are in danger of embracing those very same evils.
Perhaps so, but Russia is a very, very long way from Western traditions of classical liberalism. It is still bonded to an ancient model of authoritarian imperialism, not enough unlike the Mongols who taught Moscow in medieval times to be in any way a good neighbor.