Whether Putin can or will create anything comparable is open, but the historical precedent is there. And he has expressed his affection for the Soviet system on many occasions, calling its demise one of the 'greatest tragedies of the 20th century'.
As a non-American that's probably my biggest irritation with the internet. Beyond the inane Facebook arguments, beyond the cesspool of comments on modern news websites, hell even beyond the Youtubers hawking stupid services, I have to say the single most irritating thing about the internet is that someone somewhere is waiting with bated breath to turn the conversation into some diatribe on the state of modern American society and the historical context in which it arose.
The article is about Moscow, not America. If you don't anything to say about Moscow don't feel nervous and start talking about America the one thing you can talk about. Don't sweat it, just sit this one out and let other people talk about the subject at hand. Listen and think about what people are saying about Russia and then the next time there's a conversation about Russia you will have something relevant to say about it.
The Soviet Union already invented that strategy.
We banned many Muslims and checked phones during peacetime, imagine what would happen if we were at war with a country near one of our borders.
They are assuming the commenter is American or at least has an idea of what America is like, which is not a bad assumption to make on an English-language website run by an American company.
Americans have this strange habit of expecting their "enemy of the day" to operate under a different standard than they do. These comparisons put things in perspective for people temporarily blinded by jingoism.