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People also often forget that communism, as Marx envisioned it, was an evolution of capitalism, not a system that could be created out of nothing. Russia was not an ideal place for a communist experiment, because you can't redistribute wealth that doesn't exist. Lenin had his sights on Germany before WWI, but settled for his home country because, as you point out, he was an opportunist above all. This brand of opportunism was shared by Stalin and his team. His foreign minister, Molotov, once remarked, "our ideology stands for offensive operations when possible, and if not, we wait." I would guess Putin is familiar with this line of thinking.