For the life of me, I can't understand how people think Russia is communist. Like, at least the PRC is nominally communist and describes itself as a communist state (even if it's not really doing communism).
But Russia? The USSR was dissolved decades ago. The Russian Federation never claimed to be communist. Are these people just stuck in the Cold War?
I tend to forget the impact of 7 decades of rabid anti-socialism propaganda Americans have been bombarded with. They are not going to think "Sweden" but "Stalinist USSR instead".
It doesn't matters who it benefits, it's the naughty word so it's bad. Keep voting for the leopards.