Democrats have hated Russia since it stopped being communist. They wanted Russia as an enemy they could cast all their blame on.
That’s not what Russia was to the Dems. It was their Shining City on a Hill and secret benefactor and they together tried to undermine the West.
Then, when the Iron Curtain came down, it became their next big foreign country to pillage once again.
Only after it had been thoroughly ransacked and began to defend itself and the Western tradition did it become a diversionary Enemy #1 while China was its new Shining City on a Chill and secret benefactor as they together further undermined the West.
Democrats really ramped up hated of Russia after Putin turned off the pipeline of adoptions to degenerates in the west.