“Putin is a lot of things, a Commie is not one of them.”
Many here cannot accept that. They NEED him to be a Communist, or they feel their own lives have no value.
They always point out that he worked for the KGB, ergo, he must be a Communist.
What Putin is, is a man of ambition, and back in Soviet times, the only place for a man of ambition was the Party or the Security Aparatus. He would have just as easily served the Czar in The Okhrana, if the Czar was still in power.
Ouch!
Re most Soviet KGB senior officials - you can take a KGB officer out of the Party but you can’t take the Party out of the officer!!