Nobody likes #Russia as the international walls continue to close in on Communist dictator Putin, his few allies are reconsidering.

Joseph Stalin promoted Marxism–Leninism abroad through the Communist International and supported European anti-fascist movements during the 1930s, particularly in the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, his regime signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, resulting in the Soviet invasion of Poland. Germany ended the pact by invading the Soviet Union in 1941. Despite initial setbacks, the Soviet Red Army repelled the German invasion and captured Berlin in 1945, thereby ending World War II in Europe. Amid the war, the Soviets annexed the Baltic states and then established Soviet-aligned governments throughout Central and Eastern Europe, China, and North Korea. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as global superpowers and entered a period of tension, the Cold War. Stalin presided over the Soviet post-war reconstruction and its development of an atomic bomb in 1949. During these years, the country experienced another major famine and an antisemitic campaign that culminated in the doctors' plot. After Stalin's death in 1953, he was eventually succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev, who subsequently denounced his rule and initiated the de-Stalinisation of Soviet society.

Under Vladimir Putin, Russia moved from democratic backsliding and shifted to authoritarianism. Putin's rule has been characterized by endemic corruption, the jailing and repression of political opponents, the intimidation and suppression of media freedom in Russia, and a lack of free and fair elections. Putin's Russia has scored poorly on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index, and Freedom House's Freedom in the World index.

Vladimir Putin is increasingly isolated and morally dead. He is turning himself into a 21st-century Stalin, resorting as never before to lies, violence, and paranoia at home. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/03/12/the-stalinisation-of-russia