Lind suffers from craniorectosis. Letting Putin manipulate the Ukraine in an effort to reconstruct the Soviet Union -- even helping him -- is so the opposite of being in US interests. It's not in US interests to permit Russia to increase its influence in South America by building a successor to the soon-to-be-deceased Castro regime -- in the form of Chavez' dictatorship in Venezuela. Russia backed Saddam Hussein. Russia didn't exactly work against us in Afghanistan, but hoped we'd fail. Russia (along with France and Germany) opposed the US during the supposed debate in the UNSC, in the run-up to the liberation of Iraq.
Completely and utterly agree! Russia is not our "vital ally" and they haven't been since WWII. They are in the exact same class as France and should be handled as such. To help them rebuild the Soviet empire is completely against U.S. interests! Remember the Cold War? It could happen again in a heartbeat.
Strong Russia limits the power of EU and China. And as such she enhances the position of USA. Weak Russia would be absorbed by EU and USA would stop to be number one.
And in case you did not notice, the strong Soviet Union it was what made USA the leading superpower. Without Soviet Union and need for world leadership against Communism, America would be an overgrown Australia. And maybe it would not be so bad :)
The game of power is the game of balance and leveraging the strength.