But you get my point. "Russian" can mean 2 things. Ethnicity and nationality.===
You shoul dknow that in Russia "Russian" means ethnicity but "Rossianin" means nationality. Abroad they mixed those 2 definitions.
You know better then average american as you ar eformer soviet youself so you should help them to understand but not to confuse them even further.
But I think its you that's confused. It's rathre simple. French - a citizen of France. English - citizen of England. Australian - citizne of Australia. Russian - citizen of Russia.