You might say the same about us, actually.
I didn't find Russians to be thus at all ... save for a few prairie dog appearances on the sidewalks outside some outer-lying subway stations while lost on the Moscow metro one day.
In fact, I saw much that I admired there. Even though it's a top-down thing in many respects (which I totally distrust) in many respects, I marveled at and admired very much their spirit, their resilience and the way many are taking full advantage of this opportunity to strengthen themselves with remembrance and renewed veneration of God, family, history, culture and nationalism.
Again, depending on how long the shock therapy of September 11th works for a thoroughly materialistic, decadent and relativist America, they may still clean our clocks but I do hope and pray "in a good way".
If any nation may be said to have hung on the cross with Christ, it is Russia. It's not as if they escaped somehow the terror, starvation, repression and slaughter imposed by their militant communist leadership on others. They suffered it in spades themselves.
If they are hardened, in large part it's due to the scars they bear.