After Boris Yeltsin had visited an American Supermarket and saw the shelves full of food, he saw what communism was doing to the Soviet people. He left the communist party the following year. The link below is to an article from the Cato Institute about his visit to the supermarket: https://www.cato.org/blog/happy-yeltsin-supermarket-day The PDF is an article from the NYT about Yeltsin's passing. Putin doesn't like Yeltsin, even though he was Yeltsin's aide. I think it was because he left the Communist Party. Is Putin Communist? Most likely not, if he was, he would've just taken Ukraine, because it does belong to the Soviet people, and it doesn't belong to the "Ukrainians". He does want to unite the Soviet Union again although, I'm pretty sure of that. Remember what the true ideology of the left is. It doesn't match Putin and his actions, it doesn't make sense. His actions on the world stage doesn't match that of a leftist (like those of China). What does the author think? I think that Putin wants out of the Communist Party too (if he already hasn't left). Him talking crap about Yeltsin was a show. Yeltsin was getting old, and he needed someone to take over that was young, and who would continue his work. With Yeltsin, people have seen what his "Market Freedom" has done, and now with Putin, shit is going bad because things are going back? People won't like that. I think Putin is smarter than that.