did you forget the USSR existed and was a global superpower?

Obviously not. That's what I'm referring to, they had all the means to prosper. Crapload of our everyday things on medicine, power technology, engineering in general and a lot of other things are built on top of what USSR came up with. And even after USSR fell there was still all the possibilities for Russian Federation to grow and prosper but their leadership chose not to. With their natural resources alone, when managed sensibly, they could absolutely dominate the US and seriously challenge China.

no nation on Earth can brainwash people into supporting an unpopular war

But they have brainwashed people making the war popular in the first place. Creating enemies out of thin air, like claiming Ukraine with their jewish president is a nazi regime, is something Russia (and USSR) have been doing for centuries. Instead of improving their own country they just create distrust and destruction.

racist screed about how Russians are some kind of backwards idiot nation.

Russian people (at least the ones I know) are generous and hospitable. But Russia as a nation is really idiotic as they could just have it all. Practical global market domination with oil, forestry and agriculture, a crapload of minerals to refine and (once) some of the smartest humans around to advance their technology but instead of that they chose basically violence on multiple fronts.