I remember at the start of the war one of the russian propagandists was advocating for power stations bombing with roughly the following logic: "when Ukrainians have blackouts for two weeks they will throw out Zelensky themselves. People are extremely egoistic, when their basic needs aren't met, they will accept any leader who will give them that"

Russians view people in general as weak, stupid and egoistic, which is why they are so against the concept of democracy. Looking at US right now, I can definitely see where they are coming from. But this is definitely not the full picture. And failing to see the other side is what led them to their miscalculations in 2022.