A friend of mine - a granddaughter of Chief Albert Luthuli - is a medical doctor who studied at te University of Moscow told me once that Russia is because of extreme weather conditions a difficult place to live in. Under Lenin and Stalin circa 52 million people were murdered by the State in the years 1917 to 1953 and anybody who complained about living conditions were either killed or sent to Siberian slave labor camps where millions died. In the 1930's there were 3,5 million Tartars - ie Muslims from the Crimea - sent to Siberia by Stalin. Of those only 200 000 lived through the ordeal. Besides that circa 20 million people died in WW2. Gorbachov said that his two brothers died in Ukraine where his parents lived from state-controlled starvation.
When in was in Russia in 1993 after the fall of Communism in 1991 the Rouble was basically worthless and the people suffered badly. Since the fall of Communism state oppression became minimal and that is still the case at present. the one thing the Russian people hates it is wars and many Russians are opposed to the present Ukraine War - but support the War effort because they hate the oppression of Russian speaking people wherever it occurs.
When the country was freed from Communism in 1991 a Constitution guaranteeing human rights was approved in a referendum where all people voted in favor of the Constitution. So hat went wrong in Ukraine since then. In 2014 there was a coup organized and funded by the USA in Ukraine and since it was totally an unconstitutional way of regime change the Ukraine Constitution was disregarded and thrown out. According to a video recording the USA Assistant Secretary decided on the leadership of Ukraine (ie the interim President and Cabinet) and since then the Government control became unconstitutional and remained so at present.
The Russian speaking people distrusted the new regime installed by the USA and the result was a Civil War breaking out in the country in 2014. In terms of the Constitution the Crimea had a special status in the Constitution. They province would have their own Parliament who decide on the Governing of the Crimea and the only role of the central Government related to specific national issues. The Crimean population were 85% Russian speakers - 10% Tartars - 5% Ukranians and without the 1991 Ukrainian Constitution the Crimean population feared that they would be oppressed. That proved to be the case in the rest of Ukraine. - but in the Crimea their Parliament foresaw the problem and decided that a referendum should be held as to their own future. The result was that the people voted basically on language lines and joining Russia was approved by the voters and in terms f that decision the Crimea voted democratically to become part of Rusia. In the Eastern Ukraine - where the majority of the residents were ethnic Russians a Civil War broke out and an attempt was made by France and Germany to end the Civil War. In the Minsk agreement - signed by the Ukraine Government, Russia France Germany and the temporary rebel Government in the Dombas Region in 2015, allowed for the following. The Minsk agreement allows for -
* retention of the Ukraine border as it was in 2015 and guaranteeing that it remains an independent country;
* that a new federal-based on constitution would be compiled that would protect human rights for all Ukrainians - which was supposed to be approved by a referendum of voters in the Ukraine.
The new constitution was never compiled and voted on in the agreed referendum and the Civil War in the Eastern Ukraine dragged on and the proposed new federal constitution in Ukraine was neve compiled and voted on. So why was the Minsk agreement never implemented? The German Chancellor (Merkel) admitted that the agreement implementation was stalled by the EU countries to allow the Ukraine Army to become a fighting force that would reconquer the Donbas region. After the 2019 election in Ukraine the conditions got worse.
The Ukraine Government started to fine people for speaking Russian in public places. From there it went to banning of using Russian in schools and banning the teaching of Russian a a language in schools - that despite the fact that the majority of people in the Donbas area especially were Russian-speaking people. Next step was to arrest all Russian speaking members of the Ukraine Parliament and the next step was to ban functioning of the Ukraine Orthodox Church. Press censorship was total. That is part of the background that led to the Ukraine War.
Ther are other countries like Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that has substantial Russian populations and they kept and abide by their Constitutions. Even though they joined NATO they were never threatened by the Russian Government.
So a counter-question is - is the USA a good place to live in? In California and some other States under Democratic Party governance Law and Oder broke down totally and hundreds of thousands of their residents fled to other States like Florida and Texas. A Stalin-model of education are being implemented in schools where children are taught to hate their parents aad sex education is offered in primary schools. So is the USA at present a god place to live in? In the cities like Chicago and New Orleans became the most dangerous cities to live in due to murders in the American continents - North and South. Hundreds of thousands of people live on sidewalks in cities where filthy conditions prevail.
So the answer is yes depending on which political party is in charge in States.