The Russian state has been brutally authoritarian for centuries. Perhaps only the early 90s were somewhat exceptional, but only in a limited sense. Very tragic. And the exercise of this brutal authoritarian violence is visible in the political leaders, very clearly on the face of both the aged Yeltsin and the aged Putin this tenseness and distortion is visible with shuddering clarity, even more so with Putin than with Yeltsin.
What Russia needs is a deep confrontation with centuries of its own colonialism. For centuries, a great deal of colonial violence came from Russia. And this deep confrontation has to be very painful at points through unambiguous facts and clear language in order to be effective.