There's also recency bias. Most people these days have no clear concept how bad things like the Holodomor actually were but they do have an idea of how bad it is in Gaza right now.

Then there's the fact that some of Russia's worst actions were actually perpetrated by the USSR so you could argue it was a different country and that they've changed like Germany argues it did. Of course the USSR was run bv Russia and there's a long list of post-Soviet Russian behavior that suggests they didn't change all that much. But, weak as it is, that argument can be made.