In the last decade the Russian federation has invaded both Georgia and the Ukraine, is using the chaos of ISIS as an excuse to fight a proxy war of support for Assad in Syria, and has enacted a brutal crackdown on their own citizens' rights.
The problem isn't "communist USSR". The problem is "warmongering dictatorship Russia."
They. Are. Our. Enemy. It certainly wasn't news to republicans in 2012. Or in 2016, prior to Trump's victory.
But let me give you a little context: The United States has active trade sanctions against the Russian Federation for their invasion of Ukraine. Here are the other nations we had active sanctions against prior to the Russians: http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0410/countries-sanctioned-by-the-u.s.---and-why.aspx Would you call any of these 'friends'? You don't cut off trade to your friends.
Romney suggested Russia was our primary adversary in 2012. The clowning was on the suggestion that their regional threat superseded that of Iran, North Korea, or China. There was wide agreement that they were an enemy going back to 2008 and the democratic primaries, when Medvedev was president and the candidates were agreeing that he was a pawn of Putin. As it so happens, Obama foreign policy (and certain other actions by unstated parties) reduced the regional threat of Iran. North Korea remains a threat, but Russia has grown to be a bigger and bolder one, in part because we've been provoking them via Aegis Ashore.
You don't sanction someone you're "watching closely." You sanction someone who has broken international law and is presenting a serious regional or global threat, and who you need to force to back down through the strongest diplomatic tool other than direct application of military force. Trade sanctions destroy economies, especially sanctions of the western, oil-consuming world against oil-producing states like Russia.
The expansion of NATO, and the deploying of SM-3 IBs in ground installations in Poland in particular, provoked Russia to act in its own defense. Our long-term strategy has been to develop anti-missile interceptors that render the nuclear arsenal of our diplomatic rivals compromised, so as to gain leverage over them in long-term disputes such as US influence in eastern Europe and Taiwan and the South China Sea. That said, its decision to directly invade a neighboring state before that state could join the expanding NATO alliance is the equivalent of a bullied kid bringing a gun to school and taking over a classroom. We are not blameless, but both our actions leading up to it and the present action in Crimea is a pure demonstration that in eastern Europe, Russia is our primary regional enemy.