@KraftTea Was USSR about socialism or communism though?
In the context of your screenshots and worker protests, this is one of the major and most widely known failures of USSR:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novocherkassk_massacreThis is when the mask came off indeed — IMO it's same old feudalism: first it was Tsar's serfdom, then Soviet serfdom and now it's a weird combination of the two. Of course being Russian I might be perceiving some things under the wrong angle, but this means that the optics of "westerners" might be even more skewered. People in US and Europe like looking at Russia through the lens of anti-colonial agenda — because they easily recognise some familiar things, but that is precisely why it should not be done: it doesn't describe the true nature of things.
That is true, some regions of Russia might be poorer than others, it is also true that regional nationalism is rarely tolerated, but genuine grassroots Russian nationalism isn't tolerated either — nationalists were among the first in Russia to be jailed or forced into exile, grassroots Russian nationalism cannot be allowed and always gets displaced with some state surrogate, there is a good reason for that: being Russian in Russia doesn't mean being in a privileged position over other nations, being Russian means being the property of Russia, a dispensable resource that the almighty state owes nothing to. This relationship is feudal in nature.
There are exceptions like Chechnya — it's often presented domestically as regional nationalism, much to some of the "Russian nationalists'" discontent — but it's just good old divide and conquer in disguise, because Kadyrov is no Chechen nationalist — in essence he's just a regional vassal. This explains why it's being tolerated: vassal - suzerain relationship is perfectly normal under feudalism. This also explains why it's easy for Russia to maintain close ties with some Central Asian countries, some African ones and autocratic regimes all over the globe: dealing with "owner of these lands" is perfectly normal under feudalism. Belarus is no exception.
Dealing with people who want to decide the fate of their country on the other hand: e.g. maintaining closer ties with EU rather than Russia — is completely unacceptable, these people are treated as "runaway slaves" having no master, they have to be brought back under the boot heel immediately — that is exactly what we see Russia currently doing in Moldova, in Georgia, this is what Russia was doing sending the army to Kazakhstan early in 2022 before starting the hot phase of war with Ukraine. And yes — the most extreme case is Ukraine, sending the army to quell the "peasant rebellion", this is what Russia was always doing: domestically and not — two centuries ago Russia was restoring monarchies in Europe, always willing to provide a helping hand to bring good old feudalism back.
Russian Empire was never even a real empire, for ordinary folk the "metropole" was never much different from "colonies" — Peter the Great just liked the thought of being an emperor, this was a cool thing at the time. Just the same, Russia never transitioned into a nation state — "Russian nation" is something ephemeral, in the very early stages of development — that's why it's easy for the state to replace genuine nationalism with some surrogate, nation is a certain stage of social organisation — it's something people have, serfs have no nation — they only have masters. That is why there was no "friendship of peoples" in USSR, no communism, no socialism — is was all fake: serfs can wear any "national" dress as long as they comply, this is all good old feudalism.
And of course modern Russia has nothing to do with capitalism either — free markets are nowhere to be found, the most profitable industries/branches of economy are under complete control of the state: some officially, some not — it's another disguise to call it "state capitalism" too fool the unsuspecting westerners. People should stop it and see past that: the society and the state in Russia never transitioned past the feudal stage, looking at Russia even through the lens of colonialism is like looking for a spine in a worm — it's simply not there, you might find some things that resembles this and that, but playing along with it would be a lie — because it does not describe the true nature of things.