I agree.
As a JW, raised in the years when the "Soviet Bloc of nations" was the King of the North, I assumed that Russia was still somehow the King of the North.
An email my father sent me last year pretty much shows older JWs still have this mindset.
I'm guessing the only reason that the Watchtower became vague in this teaching in the Daniel book is because JWs became legal in Russia. They didn't want to poke the bear.