A great article to send to a leftist.
Vladimir Putin is still playing from the Soviet playbook. He was trained in these subversion tactics when he was training for the KGB. The whole “Russia-Trump” thing also gives them perfect cover to assist our domestic Marxists and associated groups here in the US without being caught.
The late science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein, in one of his novels, wrote of a trip (I forgot why) to Stalinist Russia. The man was a rabid American, so I knew it would not be a woo-woo for Stalin, a la Bernie Sanders.
I suggest you find that, and read it twice.
Reminds me of the classic Reagan quote. How do you tell a Communist? Well, its someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? Its someone who understands Marx and Lenin.