For some reason Russia retains the anti-imperalist reputation of Soviet propaganda despite both being extremely imperial.
I think it's because neither incarnation could do imperialism via a navy so all the countries not on the Russian periphery never experienced it.
Yeah, soviets were imperialists as bad as they come, and modern Russia isn't any better. One must be really dumb to buy into such propaganda.
Back then may be access to information was harder, but there is no excuse today.