fred, it’s different i think. they seem to assimilate to freedom just fine although in the bad old days (and may be still) any wave of russian emigration was spiked with some KGB operatives. They are not too bad with their kids either.
But as a nation they’ve been ruled by organized crime (soviet years and putin), punitive expeditions (mongols and much since) etc.
So in their political thought they long very much for a strongman. If you mean the rape and pillage we are reading about now — if an organized crime group runs the country, they manage to recruit the like from a generally poor and paracriminal society. The army has universal conscription and is a nasty place with nasty hazing etc — can find enough scum for dirty work.