"While I hope they succeed in their transition to democracy I still find it hard to feel sorry for any problems they may be having along the way."Some things you might never be able to fully understand, unless you lived through them. I was born and grew up in the Soviet Union and my family left in 1992, amid possibly the worst of the chaos and infrastructure/society breakdown of the 1st post-soviet decade. I can see why many people back then, or even now may view the relative stability of the early 80s (when the system was definitely ailing) nevermind the 70s as a better alternative to the cold, orderless (I won't use the term "lawless", since there was no "rule of law" in USSR by Western definition) and hungry, crumbling reality around them? So many highly educated people found themselves losing even whatever foundation of life they might have had before. They surely deserved better than what they got then or now under Putin. Whether by sheer mismanagement, or by design, the "90's reforms" surely accomplished but one thing - discredited the ideas of "democracy" and "capitalism" in the eyes of many ordinary Russians. You never had a chance to compare the "spirit" of 1989-90 among ordinary people vs. 3-5 years later, vs. today. In 1990 so many people believed that a new openness and newfound freedoms might pave the way for a better tomorrow. People felt very open towards the West and intoxicated by the influx of Western culture (I remember people watching Rambo III on VHS and almost cheering for the American character). Disillusionment from the "shock therapy" brought on a revival of bitter nationalism, and a general anti-Western sentiment. Perhaps, if the case was handled differently, things could have been different.
That's because they've had such little experience with it, building a viable democracy takes time and doesn't happen overnight. I suspect however that Russia will eventually revert back to its traditional authoritarian form of government. Hopefully not but if they do there will be problems again if they try to impose it on everyone else.