The US economic empire is/was directly attacking these people. The Kremlin / Russian empire is not. Are you not able understand that when something is directly

The US economic empire is/was directly attacking these people. The Kremlin / Russian empire is not. Are you not able understand that when something is directly and personally attacking you, you're heavily inclined to not buy arguments that it could be a force for good in other ways? I'm not saying their arguments have merit, or that people should listen to what they say (actually the opposite, which is incredibly tragic with Snowden). Just that their downward spirals are understandable.