...the only alternative right now is throwing cash at a librem5 and there's still plenty of work until it's feasible for a linux phone as a daily driver.
Looking further ahead, Pinephone development is active.
The question of course is whether they do anything equally bad as either Google/Apple or the NSA. It looks obvious to me that Russia funds this because they don't want the former inside their devices.
Trying to run their own mass surveillance using Sailfish wou be pretty much a waste of resources. There are no masses that use it and the Russian opposition could easily avoid touching such device. However, in typical Stalin/KGB/Putin-style paranoia you would want to eavesdrop your friends to make sure they don't work against you. So that is somewhat worrying.
Disclaimer: Typed on a Sailfish device.