It's entirely defensible, in that I don't consider most people who used to have/could've had a USSR passport to be doctrinaire communists, or even in a position to make policy. The # of people who were politically committed Russians in the mid-80's who are even alive now is vanishingly small. It was always a gerontocracy.

Likewise, in 1986 there were close to 500,000 KGB employees. How many of them do you think were in leadership positions then, that are also in leadership positions in the FSB/GRU now?