>>16670733Quite different institutions and historical backgrounds.
Russians are have been playing their "expansionist empire" stage for the last ~5 centuries, so they are quite accustomed to being compliant and letting their rulers do whatever they want. Their entire country is build on compliance and apathy.
For us, we didn't have an empire of our own, nor did we really have chance to have our own state for prolonged periods of time after the Mongols. Geography is quite different as well, you can't really govern an open field. We certainly prefer to base our country on democratic institutions, despite their shortcomings, and cooperate with neighbors.
