At this point it’s a chicken an egg problem - do russians really believe what you said, or are their beliefs a product of decades of internal propaganda?
I mean, yeah, probably many of them believe it now.
Personally, I lean towards this - after 20 years in power Putin is a defacto dictator perched on top of a government machine he constructed to keep him there. A machine composed of various pieces of corruption, propaganda, repressions, and bribes.
And like many dictatorships before - having to pressure relief valve of changing people in power, he has to deflect discontent elsewhere, external enemies, NATO, etc, and ply his population with achievements they can soothe themselves with while submerged in poverty and corruption. And justifications are made up as needed by the machine of the state.
You are repeating russian propaganda and there are people far smarter than I that have repeatedly tried to explain why it is such and failed, and I won’t bother trying.
Perhaps the difference is having heritage vs having lived for a large portion of life and still having ties and relatives there?
Also, please elaborate. How does does having come from Poland figure into this conversation? You yearn for Soviet rule and hate what capitalism stands for? Or sympathize with Russian justifications for their aggression against a neighbor state and their own people? I can only speculate lacking any detail.
As russian, when I encounter people comparing the state of media in Russia to the worst excesses of government influence in media in US like they are comparable - I think to myself “what a bunch of fucking idiots”.
It’s the same ignorant halfwit crowd that compares minor inconvenience to Holocaust, having to follow an HOA rule to Stalin’s repressions, and anyone telling them what they don’t like to Hitler.
I live in US now and I complain periodically about various imperfect, unfair, annoying things that are associated with any society. Humans suck. They are selfish and dishonest in large proportions, some of the time. But what is happening right now in Russia has brought back into focus for me and reminded me just how much better the West is. Fucking treasure it while you have it.