This should scare you all the most . I moved to the US from Russia in 2001 . My family stayed back and is antiPutin . There is no freedom of speech or press , at all . It is illegal to offend feelings of religious people , punishable by 2 years in jail . It ' s illegal to be openly gay . The economy is in complete shitter and is only surviving thanks to oil and natural gas . Corruption is much much much worse than here in the US . You can buy any judge or government official . I didn ' t come here to have this turn into Russia 2 . 0 . Unrelated EDIT When my brother was in Russian 6 th grade in the early 80 ' s , he had to learn how to assemble an AK 47 in 40 seconds , use a gas mask , and jump with a parachute from a tower . They also had 3 day military games with intelligence units and simulated gas attacks .