Nemtsov report claims hundreds of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine

[DetlefK]

7. No color revolution. Russians long for the good old times of soviet dictatorship.

Well, most Russians do.

I think, it's similar to muslim extremism: You have the best religion in the world, Islam, and yet there is poverty and corruption everywhere while the godless heathens have all the high standards of living and peace and prosperity. The nation-states have failed us, the only alternative left for a better life is giving religion a try.
All those evil people holding us down will pay.

Russia went from being the head of the Soviet Union, de facto an empire with colonies, to being a single nation. And even though Russia couldn't offer much politically or economically, the Russians still felt that Russia was owed a role as a global player. But somehow this global influence never materialized: Eastern Europe looked towards the West instead of the East. The EU and NATO expanded into territory that was reserved for Russia's expansion, the re-establishment of its former glory that would happen any minute now, any minute now.
(There is no way those countries would deliberately prefer the West over Russia, because they once belonged to Russia and they are supposed to belong to Russia again. There must scheming and secret aggression on part of the West. => Ukraine)

Combine that with the chaos after the break-down of the Soviet Union: The embarassing drunken mess that was Boris Yeltzin and the pillaging of the russian economy that created the russian billionnaire-class, the oligarchs.
Russians want the good old days back, the days when things were better, when Russia was powerful and there were no oligarchs, when Russia was a global power. Putin gives them this pride they are longing for and the Russians are willing to grant him leeway on everything else for that.

I remember reading an article of an old russian woman. She bemoaned that the Russians have never been able to shed the soviet mindset: sacrifize and endurance for the greater good. She bemoaned that the Russians nowadays still unquestioningly accept hardships as a natural part of life instead of treating them as a sign that something is wrong.