No, its because of the freedoms of the average person now, not the history. The USA has an incarceration problem, but the average american has freedom. The average Russian is careful not to publicly criticise the government. Look at dead opposition and dead generals as a high profile examples.

Capitalism was not introduced non Russia because the USSR was functional. There were bread queues for food, and people were hungry. Capitalism started to fix that. Then Putin put a stop to that progress.

The USA has a lot of problems now and historically. The difference is learning from them and improving. It is always 2 steps forward and one back in any progress, so i do agree there has been a step back. The USA learned from Vietnam and no longer has conscription for its wars. Hundreds of thousands of Russians have been killed in the Ukraine war. After the standing army was depleted, this is by conscription.

You say Russia doesn't persecute its native peoples? All of those from the former USSR that have joined NATO would disagree. Ukraine would disagree (Ukraine is a distinct country but Russia considers it theirs). Chechens would disagree. Lgbtqi people would disagree with their freedoms.

All countries can and should improve. The USA is a far better place to live than most of your examples. And most of the improvements are due to capitalist style markets.