Thread by @JMichaelWaller

1) On official Kremlin website, Putin says that, having been a Communist Party member, "I still like many of these left-wing values." He says he has an "ideological basis" for cooperation with Biden and today's Democrats.
en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…

2) Putin says those "left-wing values" are hard to implement but are "very attractive, nevertheless. In other words, this can be seen as an ideological basis for developing contacts with the Democratic representative [Biden]."

3) How Putin sees the modern US Democratic Party's common roots with his own: "As for the Democratic candidate, what can I say? We can hear rather sharp anti-Russian rhetoric .... But some things are worth mentioning...."

4) "... First," Putin says, "the Democratic Party is traditionally closer to the so-called liberal values, closer to Social Democratic ideas, if compared to Europe. And it was from the Social Democratic environment that the Communist Party evolved."

5) Keep in mind that Russian leaders tend to speak elliptically and with vagueness, and generally are not as direct as American politicians can be. They mean far more than they usually say.

6) Does Putin support BLM? He recalls covert Soviet support for black radicals, from Stalin to Andropov. "The Soviet Union also supported the African Americans’ movement for their legitimate rights. Back in the 1930s, Communist International leaders wrote that both black and..."

7) "... white workers had a common enemy – imperialism and capitalism. They also wrote that these people could become the most effective group in the future revolutionary battle."

Putin sees a direct continuum between Stalin's Comintern and Russian policy today. Read on.

8) "So, this is something that can be seen, to a degree, as common values, if not a unifying agent for us. I am not afraid to say so. This is true," Putin says.

Then he recalls someone who spent time in prison for accessory to murdering a judge and got training in East Germany.

9) "Do you remember – well, you are a young man, but people of my generation remember a time when huge portraits of Angela Davis, a member of the US Communist Party and an ardent fighter for the rights of African Americans, were on view around the Soviet Union," Putin says.

10) Angela Davis appeared on Putin's RT channel last June to promote BLM and endorse Joe Biden. rt.com/shows/going-un…