True. Russia (not just Putin, or the Soviets) has a terrible attitude problem. They have a huge chip on the shoulder and extreme short term thinking.
What they need is a few million copies of Dale Carnegie, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”
Your assuming the vatniks can read.
Yes, that's true. As befits the fact that your average Russian is, sad to say, invariably little more than a morose pagan alcoholic. Some decent (if melancholic) literature, a few generally bombastic composers, and a handful of ballet dancers does little to disguise the fact that, culturally, Russia is awash in backwards peasants who've long struggled to join the 20th century, much less the 21st.
The people here who hold up Putin, and "Mother Russia," as the last bastion of "white, Western, Christian values" are ridiculous clowns.