How on earth can you say the Soviet Union is gone and it’s IDEOLOGY AS WELL. That is exactly the problem. Putin is restoring the earlier police state mentality of the USSR, and wants to restore these borders. Do you really think that Poland would be working so hard to help Ukraine if they were not afraid of having the USSR back in position to control them? Russia is already parked on the other side of “Niagara Falls” along the Baltic countries. If Putin takes Ukraine, he will also be on the other side of Niagara Falls with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, etc. None of those countries want Putin a few steps away from their liberated countries. They remember the secret police, the torture, etc. that were commonplace under the old Soviet control, which Putin seeks to continue before he dies, probably of cancer.
Do you think the Ukrainians would be fighting so hard if they did not have bitter memories of the old Soviet regime and see Putin as its active symbol? If Putin succeeds, Europe will probably end up in a nasty mess that we will have to get involved in for our own survival. Last time it was Japan that finally got us into the European war. This time it no doubt would be China that would achieve the same result if we did manage to stay out.
“The problem was never that the Russians were communists. It turned out that the problem had always been that the Soviets were Russians”