Wasn’t it just a few years ago when Russia/aka Soviet Union was the darling of the New York Times and the Washington Post? I’ve lived too long I guess.
The reason they hate Russia now is because, under Putin, it is no longer pushing international communism and it's returning to its Christian roots.
Communist Russia - Stalin's Soviet Union has been the pet of the apologist New York Times and Washington Post since Lenin consolidated control of International Communism in the later 1920's.
They demonized and ruined Joe McCarthy to protect benevolent "Uncle Joe" and the Soviet in America including Obama's maternal grandparents.