Putin is not a tankie; the dude is a literal billionaire who participated in gutting the USSR. How well did the haute bourgeosie fare under Lenin or Mao?
Perhaps he wasn't a stalinist around the time of USSR's deflation but he sure is like Stalin reincarnated today. And seeing as we are in lemmy, I need the feel to remind everyone that that is an extremely bad thing to be.
I've had multiple conversations with people here on Lemmy who seem to be under the impression that Stalin was a great dude who really just wanted to best for everyone, freedom and riches!
This is the point where you're an extremist without knowing that you're an extremist
Stalin was a communist revolutionary who played an integral role in the creation of the USSR. Putin is a liberal counterrevolutionary, who is partly responsible for hypercapitalist modern Russia, the two are not comparable at all.
If by "he sure is like stalin", you mean he employs violence to maintain and consolidate power, that's every state ever, that's kinda how states work.