If I may chime in, I believe you're both correct in your own ways.
Russia is being controlled through very "in your face" propaganda. America also, in many ways, is very controlling and also gets away with its fair share of atrocious behavior.
In my opinion, it's a spectrum or a big circle.
Instead of being "left or right", they both circle around to their own variation of authoritarianism.
(although I would say the USA is slightly better off, for the time being, at least. I don't think they're quite as bad, but some aspects are indeed just as bad. But I have not visited Russia, so my perspective is skewed based purely on what I read about it.)