[ReignOfError]

Communism in Russia died with a whimper, not a bang.

And thank God for that. Because if it had ended with a "bang," that bang would be measured in gigatons. We could not -- the world could not -- afford that risk.

And only a few years later, because they didn't "clean up the mess", communist party survivors have reconsolidated and are expanding their once broken power again.

That's way overstated. Russia is certainly a mess, but the current threat is cronyism, not communism. Russia's apparatchiks have moved from the worst form of communism to the worst form of capitalism in a blink. It isn't about ideology. It's about sheer lust for power.

[Caipirabob]

That's way overstated. Russia is certainly a mess, but the current threat is cronyism, not communism.

I don't really believe they would reassert themselves as communists, at least initially, so much as a force to undermine the establishment of a functional republic. That in itself can lead to the emergence of yet another tyrannical regime.