The Communists get between 10-15% of the vote.
Russians know who they are from experience and left-wing ideology has limited appeal in Russia.
While Americans talk about we need to try socialism.
Whatever one thinks of Putin’s Russia, there is no mood to return to the Soviet days.
I said STALINISM not Marxism-Leninism. PUTIN is a neo-STALINIST even if not commmunist.
Soviet nostalgia is huge in Russia even amidst the glittery externals. It doesn’t require living there to figure that out. Just a few conversations.
You live there long enough. You realize the core of the system never truly died and in terms of the State there was never any real break after 1991.
And for those born after 1991: they are taught to derive their sense of statehood and pride from Stalin’s victory over Hitler in WWII and are “Stalinized” in other ways. But that is the starting point.