“Which country do you want to live in, a great country or a normal country?”

The problem is, neither one is offered anywhere to anybody. You end up living in a depressed shard of Russian State with fake history, be it Russia, Belarus or Ukraine.

Russia a bit richer, Belarus a little bit more "normal", Ukraine the third one.

The concept of "normal country" is very Soviet and peculiar on its own. Every country out there stems from its history. You can't really have a blank slate "normal country" where you want it much like you could not have "a democracy" in place of Iraq or Libya. It has to be about something.