The USSR was better for the vast majority of the population, 7 million people died due to its collapse. When the former Socialist state was sliced up and sold for parts, just like the "Washington Consensus" wanted, the people paid the price with their blood. The modern Russian Federation and all its ills stem from that liberalization of the economy and subsequent plundering. Putin is just a label for what liberalism accomplished, even without Putin the RF would have taken a similar if not near identical course.