[VincentEvans]

Post-soviet sphere has plenty of examples of former SU-aligned countries that have since pivoted towards EU and have built democratic, free, and prosperous independent states, or are well on their way of building one. Even Ukraine was a recent example of being on such path, if it wasn’t for the malign efforts of, you guessed it, Russia.

No state is perfect, and one can always find this or that to pick at, but most of democratic ones have not unleashed armies of state-employed goons on their own people to keep them from speaking up.

You should work on your boot-licking addiction (and I am telling you that as a Soviet-born russian-speaking citizen of one of the former republics).