My wife has always thought that Vladimir Putin was a closet Communist, and has the goal of changing Russia back into the Soviet Union. Boy, wouldn't that give Communism a world-engulfing super power? Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, and they all happen to be Nuclear powers too! What think ye? Hal 9000
No, it wouldn't because communism in the sense of what it really means (people's property, no private capital and property) is as dead as a door nail. Putin would like to re-establish the old Soviet Union within its old borders because a large section of society wants that, too. But that's an illusion. Putin's goal is not to expropriate the country's oligarchs and turn their private property into people's property since that's what communism is all about. China and Russia are no communist countries in the true sense of the word. Roughly speaking, they are both authoritarian regimes relying on a market economy (contrary to communist countries), on the one hand, but rejecting a division of powers or checks and balances on the other hand. The interesting question, therefore, is not if "communism" is going to be reintroduced but how attractive autocratic regimes like we see in China and Russia are to other countries in the world.
Communist countries that are prospering are those that have given up the principles of communism. In China, and I suppose, in Russia too, there are the very rich and there are the very poor, and the very rich have all of the power and all of the options. Come to think of it, the United States isn't much different. I suppose that in communist countries like North Korea, the idea is the same, only the percentage of the very rich is smaller and even more powerful, and the status of the majority is even worse.