Russia is only critically supported by communists for its objective material opposition to the current imperialist hegemony by the US. The idea that communists can only support communists is a bit reductive, communists support the international working classes and their liberation. This means supporting elements that weaken the primary world contradiction right now, US imperialism. Obviously communists would prefer Russia turn socialist, but that does not change that it is still playing a progressive role in undermining the US.

Communists that support Russia have critical support, which means we support some of what they do, such as supporting Cuba during a genocidal blockade, but we still have valid criticisms. You won't see any of us claim Russia is morally good or some nonsense.

Communists don't judge countries based on their perceived moral character. Russia, like all countries, acts in the interest of its own ruling class. Right now the interest of their ruling class is aligned with anti-imperialist forces. We understand that imperialism is the primary contradiction, and that as long as we live under a unipolar world order the global majority will only get poorer and more exploited, that climate change will inevitably kill most of us and that those who survive will be tied to the same exploitative forces.

The only reason why some of us come across as "pro-Russia" is because we're often debunking imperialist propaganda. As long as people are willing to read beyond wikipedia or a genocide-denying newspaper, we're fine discussing events with a lot more nuance than we get credit for. But it's a lot easier to pretend we're crazy Putin-loving tankies, so that's what you see here.

And that’s where things start to get interesting. Wait until you learn that Stalin/Lenin weren’t really communists, came to power in a non-democratic way, which is basically something only right-wing does. And yeah, tankies are not really the smartest breed. Same category as rednecks. Too much lead was in the water when they grew up.