And the USSR was in many ways Tsarist Russia - so a Russian empire.
The important thing to realize, I think, is that Putin wanting to return his country to its former level of strength is not necessarily a bad thing -- That's not really true - it is a bad thing. Because "Russia" in 1914 included the Baltic states, Central Asia etc.
Today, Communism is fully in the past in Russia, -- yes
to help save the world from fascism. - the funny thing is that they didn't "save the world" directly but rather inadvertently - the Soviets allied with the Nazis. And at the end of the war, the Soviets won half of Europe
I'm going to say something controversial (at least here), but this is my observation/analysis of history. Russians, in general (and this includes the Soviets) DO NOT LIKE WAR. They avoid it if at all possible, until you attack/provoke them (then they turn into a monster). The USSR allied with Germany when it looked like that would allow them to avoid being in the war. Not ideologically pretty, but fairly rational. Hitler turning on the USSR was one of the critical mistakes leading to his defeat (which the USA is quick to take full credit for, even though Russia sacrificed millions of people for it).
Throughout pretty much all of (relatively) modern history, this pattern has held, and most of the Cold War Soviet "expansionism" was explicitly provoked (see Z. Brzezinski's successful plan to provoke the USSR into invading Afghanistan). For goodness' sake, the Tu-95 "Bear", the "most feared" Soviet/Russian long-range bomber first flew in 1952, and had its combat debut in Syria in November 2015! This is not the pattern of a warmongering, expansionist people.