PugJesus on Nostr: That's part of the campism. If you nail them down on the topic of Russia, ...

That's part of the campism. If you nail them down on the topic of Russia, specifically, they will disavow modern Russia precisely because it isn't painted red. But for **every** action on the international stage, they will unfailingly support Russia, because Russia is against the West's 'camp'. Same with Iran.

On the other hand, if you nail them down on the USSR and the PRC, *actual* tankies will almost always outright speak in support of both, if not necessarily unconditionally. Though the conditions they apply are... party-approved. In the spirit of "MAYBE there were SOME excesses and bad choices, but also you have to understand that the bourgeois FORCED us to take most of these measures!" that dedicated Communists who got swept up into the GULAG still parroted to their fellow inmates during the Stalin years.

Regimes with a **very** thin coat of red paint, like Assad's Syria, still often receive this bootlicking treatment from actual tankies.