This is not a joke. Putin said:
“The Democratic Party is traditionally closer to the so-called liberal values, closer to social democratic ideas. And it was from the social democratic environment that the Communist Party evolved.
After all, I was a member of the Soviet Communist Party for nearly 20 years. I was a rank-and-file member, but it can be said that I believed in the party’s ideas. I still like many of these left-wing values. Equality and fraternity. What is bad about them? In fact, they are akin to Christian values.
Yes, they are difficult to implement, but they are very attractive, nevertheless. In other words, this can be seen as an ideological basis for developing contacts with the Democratic representative.”
…
“Back in the 1930s, Communist International leaders wrote that both black and 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. So, this is something that can be seen, to a degree, as common values, if not a unifying agent for us.”