I mean…Putin was their second president. So even if Yeltsy wasn’t as fucking awful as he was, it took all of one transfer of power to lose all semblance of legitimate democracy.

but came at the cost of economic decline

At least they’re right about something. Kind of surprising, actually, that such a cursory reading of the situation doesn’t just default to “and capitalism made line go up because it’s the greatest driver of prosperity in human history.”