I never defended Yeltsin, but what you mention is criminality and corruption, not unfreedom. In fact, civic freedoms often correlate with elevated crime levels. However, Yeltsin opened the KGB archives and abolished censorship; that is a significant measure of freedom. Putin has been reversing that trend as soon as he came into power.
You simply aren’t impartial. Putin has brought a European judicial system and a 13% income tax. And I can walk downtown at night. I own my home worth some $300,000 and I can change a $50,000 cars once a few years. And I’m not even an upper middle class.