Thank you for sharing such an enlightening point of view, and apologies for taking so long to reply. Speaking of Russian exceptionalism... I recently read an open letter to Brazil from Mark Manson, a blogger who's spent four years there, being from the US himself. In that letter, he outlines the cause and effect of a screwed and skewed mentality that drives the country's problems. What struck me is how it almost precisely corresponds with what I've been seeing inside Russia. We don't have all the problems Brazil has and vice versa, but the underlying cause - human selfishness being acceptable on the cultural level - is spot-on towards Russia as much as it may be towards Brazil (with the culture of which I'm not familiar in any good way). If you're interested in what it looks like, read the letter and imagine men and women much paler with less Sun over their heads.