You are partly right. russia is essentially the largest eugenics project in the world, where Stalin began a process of killing of all the people capable of independent thought and resistance to authority. The part you are mistaken is that they are some poor oppressed people. No, the end result of Stalin's little project is a nation of people that actively seek to be oppressed by a strongman and view lies and deceit not as vices, but as virtues.
If you had a magical button that when pressed made Putin and the entire russian government magically disappear, the russian people would would just build the exact same system again.