To What Degree is Russia a Modern Reflection of the USSR?

[GMantis]

I would say between 5 and 10%, but that's probably too much. The very phrase "independent journalists" is completely incompatible with USSR.

[GMantis]

Russia is a nation in the process of demographic implosion and isn't that far off from a muslim/white civil war.

Poor Muslims.

Russia will be lucky if it can maintain it's current borders let alone even consider anymore meddling overseas.

You have a strange definition of overseas.

[GMantis]

Remember people there were "elections" in the USSR too.

Not to mention that while privatization has put things onto the market, the economic infrastructure isn't that different. There is also the strong legacy of pollution (Go ogle "pollution in Lake Baikal" to see what I'm getting at.)

Lol about economic infrastructure being the same. Privatization changed the system completely. Also, the economy switched from being largely  to one depended on exports.
The election results would be pretty much the same even if they were fully fair. The Soviet elections were empty formalities.
Considering also the significant societal changes, and the theory of today's Russia being a throwback to Soviet times seems even more hollow.
Pollution problems are in some ways better, mainly because the economic depression.

[GMantis]

I'd personally say that it's more a reflection of Tsarist Russia.

I'd say it's a combination of the two. The Putin government completely lacks any ideology other than nationalism, which is where the USSR comparison breaks down.

The USSR really did not have any ideology other than Russian nationalism, and acted just like any other world power: in this case it tried to assert itself over the Eurasian continent while buying support from basketcases in the Third World.

Red flags, mass parades, and slogans were just a sideshow.

This is, if not completely, mostly untrue. Communist ideology was the main means of attracting support both at home and abroad. Russian nationalism gained ground during WW2 and after that, but it was certainly not dominant. Two prominent examples against your theory are the giving of the Crimea to the Ukraine and the ignoring of the protests of the Russian population in Chechnya