Um the discussion was revolving around a chess tournament organized (by admission of the moscow chess open website) part of the Russian government. As you know, Russian government right now has been agressively sending tanks into neighboring nations with the very flags of the USSR, including the hammer and sickle, while that same government goes on 45 minute tirades about restoring the glory of uniting former soviet satellites. So you know this discussion about the policies of the chess organizers, the russian government, has a lot to do with the USSR.
On a technical implementation of the robot I agree completely. On the policy level I concede I am not very familiar with policies of the USSR, but it is a policy decision of the Russian government organizer to allow the placement of the robot, a robot that many organizers would deem not safe for interaction with children. Recent policy in Russia indicates they still have a lot of legacies left from the USSR.
