Heavily controlled state that kills or imprisons political opponents, and disappears or imprisons protesters even for holding a blank white paper on the streets. Russia has the same issue USA does. It’s a gigantic country with spread out cities, with most money going to Moscow and St. Petersburg. It’s extremely difficult to organize effective protests. Especially now that their internet is more walled off than the Great Firewall of China. It’s one thing to have centralized, effective protests in smaller countries where driving to the capital is a couple of hours.