The only thing ironic here is that I spent most of my life either in fear of,(duck and cover) worried about,(missile crisis) or in total opposition to ( US Army 3rd AD in East Germany)the Russians and/or the former soviet union.
So here you are, in the US, on my chosen political forum, trying to sell me on the ethics of Russians and the good they do.
Now that is irony.
The USSR was not Russia. Stalin was a Georgian not a Russian.