My opinion of Russia is that communism raised generations to depend on an all-powerful government to tell them what to do and provide them sustenance. Folks who resisted were murdered. What is left are mostly the lemmings who lack the initiative to seek a better future for themselves. The "satellite" countries of Eastern Europe also struggle with this but they had the advantage of finding independence through the guys who stood up to Moscow all those years. Poland is an excellent example of this.
I hope Russia gets their act together because they have a great potential for good throughout the world. But they will need to raise a generation of people full of self-determination before they will be able to have the impact I wish for them.
Obviously you have not spent enough time in the company of a Babushka who thinks your children have not eaten enough yet.
That has always been a part of Russia, even before the communists. Paternalistic feudal estates, paternalistic tsar...
It's a common misconception to attribute all evils to communism. Perhaps, the reverse is true: communism took hold fist in the country where common folk looked up to power from a "good tsar," a " good duke." They merely exchanged those for a "good politburo."
I hope Russia gets their act together because they have a great potential for good throughout the world.
That too has been the hope of the West for centuries, perhaps because Russia is Christian. That hope has never materialized; there is no empirical evidence to support that hope. And, besides, "the one that has been a slave for long cannot be a friend" (Nietzsche).
I'm actually thinking that by the time I am ready to retire, Russia will make a decent place to retire to.