Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the Soviet Union's decision to send tanks into Hungary and Czechoslovakia to crush mass protests during the Cold War was a mistake. "It was a mistake," Putin said when asked about perceptions of Russia as a colonial power due to Moscow's decision to send tanks into Budapest in 1956 and into Prague in 1968. "It is not right to do anything in foreign policy that harms the interests of other peoples," said Putin, who in 2022 sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two.
I don't expect Putin to have good takes on the USSR, despite how every liberal is convinced he WaNtS ThE SoVieT UnIoN BaCk.
But still, if you don't send troops to quash the revolt in Hungary, what do you think happens when the West sees that Eastern Bloc countries can be shaken with color revolutions? It became apparent in the 1980s, with the USSR in a much weaker position, that the Baltics and Poland were especially vulnerable. I don't know too much about the Prague thing, maybe someone can give some info.