> It's not like he's some huge USSR booster
Putin is pro-Soviet and views any insult against the USSR as an insult against Russia itself. He has said that the collapse of the USSR was a great catastrophe and given an option to change anything in history he would bring back the Soviet Union. He has also played a large part in the revival and rehabilitation of Stalin in modern Russia
https://www.tfp.org/the-errors-of-russia/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47975704
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/03/03...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_under_Vladimir_Putin#So...