unfortunately, Russians who could see past that little trick were either exterminated or emigrated long ago.
Nobody has a problem with it though since the government is eager to listen to the West so it's a proper "democracy" and things are fine.
Reasons your text is a poor attempt:
Kremlin propaganda about "democracy = subjugation" predates Ukrainian situation by at least a few decades if not a century; and then Ukraine is not the only "young democracy" Russians could check out as an example, so why do you even bring it out here? especially since attacking Ukraine themselves definitely taints "the analysis of the benefits of democracy".
Even if we take a bait with "Ukraine is a reason why Russians don't want democracy":
Ukrainian history in your post is (on purpose?) not told exactly right and some important elephants in the room (like Crimea and Russian military involvement) are conveniently ignored; subjective statement about corruption levels is thrown, what's your measurement methodology?
again, other "young democracies" might have a better situation with everything, why Russians don't look at those?
I indeed believe that you are sincere and find that because Ukraine is failing and still labeled a democracy then Russia is never going to be democratic, but it's tragic that such a shaky views are just blindly adopted by Russians.
Because it's easy to verify. Btw, I am not sure what are you even arguing here, my point and the point to the post you replied to is that "Russia will never be considered a democracy by the West" not the strawman you are so eager to burn here.
Russia can and will be labeled free and democratic by outside organizations when it's not ruled by a dictator. The US did not chose Putin, though Putin might like to choose who leads the US.