“Putin does not want to revive the USSR. The past remains in the past.”
Well, that probably depends on the kind of “want” you are talking about. Do I think he has it on his “to do” list of practical things he can achieve? No. Do I think if he found a genie in a bottle and was granted a wish would he ask for that? Certainly.
“No one in Russia or the post-Soviet space misses the Communist Party and no one in free elections looks forward to restoring its rule.”
I have to disagree here. Of course the few at the top who benefited from their positions with the party miss those benefits. Also, the ideologically committed communists of course miss effectively having half the planet under their dominion. It’s foolish to think otherwise.
We will never see it again.
The fact the very few presided over the country’s dissolution is not an argument on their behalf.
Just the opposite. For all its flaws and shortcomings, Putin’s Russia is still a far freer country than the Soviet Union ever was.
As far as being an accidental historical outcome it might be, its still one that left the modern world a better place, indeed.