I remarked to my wife that there was no longer any reason for us to treat Russia as an enemy. IMHO, a big part of the reason for a lot of the ongoing troubles is that we (the West) kept poking at Russia as if it was still the USSR.

It is not the USSR, it is a smaller country who has more of a madman in charge than any USSR leader since Stalin.

Putin has launched four wars of aggression: the Second Chechen War (1999), the Russo-Georgian War (2008), the annexation of Crimea/Donbas intervention (2014), and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This is not run-of-the-mill destabilizing as they used to do (and the US too: see: Iran, Chile, Guatemala, Cuba, Congo, Nicaragua, Panama, etc.) Putin’s record also includes boots on the ground, tanks, artillery, and the other trappings of modern mechanized warfare. That’s a pretty concerning record, I would think.

Capitalist, communist, whatever else, I don’t care. Vietnam is nominally Communist and we’re great traders with them. We seem to have no political disputes at all! It’s how the leaders play that matters, and Putin is not one you want on the playfield if you’re trying to keep calm and carry on. Unfortunately for now, Putin = Russia.