If you are wondering why the Russians are all of a sudden the Big Enemy again, all you have to do is look at who it benefits to have a powerful external enemy. If you guessed “The Communists”, you’re correct.
“But isn’t Putin just another Communist?” you ask. No, he’s not. Vladimir Putin saw Communism from the inside at high levels of the government and he knows it’s a dead end: one, there’s no money in it. Two, it’s hopelessly bureaucratic and unwieldy as a form of government: endless committees, petty power squabbles over who’s Bureau is the most powerful, and so forth. Putin knows that’s not going to work for his leadership style. No, Putin is more like a modern-day Tsar: autocratic, dictatorial, answerable to no one but himself. He is keenly interested in re-asserting the Russian Empire’s influence, determined to make it the dominant world power the old Russian Empire never quite achieved. He can’t do that with Communism.
“But what about the Chinese, everybody says they’re a much more serious threat!” you cry; well, yeah. They are a serious threat…to Capitalism. Because they are, in fact, Communists and therefore a fraternal international partner of our own Communists. As the Communists here consolidate their power they are going to need the cooperation of the Chinese Communist Party. They can’t alienate them, and they don’t want to; they are in common cause with our Communists.
“But I’m so confused!!!” you wail. I know, and I’m sorry but it’s complex. The real deal is that Russia, for all their bluster, posturing, and muscle-flexing on the Crimean Peninsula and other places, is not an immediate threat economically or militarily. They have traditionally struggled to project power, even during the Cold War; they simply don’t have the logistics capacity to effectively move troops, equipment, and supplies like we can. Syria was a serious stretch for them, and it wasn’t even a big war. No, for all Putin’s posturing he is not a serious, clear and present danger: that makes him safe to antagonize. It’s a lot like poking a bear with a stick through a cage: he’s going to get annoyed, make a lot of noise, show his teeth, and rattle the bars a lot but ultimately he can’t really do much to hurt you. So Russia is now The Big Enemy.
But why? Simple: the Communists need threats that they can hold up to the public and say “See?!?! See how dangerous and scary they are? You need us to protect you from them!” Of course it’s a scam, because they know good and well that they’re not really protecting you from anything but if you don’t know that, they gain power with that fear. It’s the same thing they have done (and continue to do) with COVID, the same thing they are doing with “gun violence”, and the same thing they are doing with “right wing extremism”; they need the Boogeyman so they can be the heroes.
So that’s why the Russians have made such a comeback; they are a safe enemy that the Communists can hold over everyone’s head. Yes, it’s a scam but that’s how the Communists roll.