It's because the current state propaganda pressures people with constant "they are same bad just hide it better" rhetoric, which itself is copied from Cold War era whataboutism.

My parents and relatives say the phrase "America has all the same..." literally every time anything political comes up, which is a pretty odd thing to say for people who aren't even able to read English-language media, least of all been here, which they admit but the next time say it again anyway. It intensified after 2013-2014 and hasn't been true at all during ~1995-2010.

It clearly comes from Putin's government insecurity about their comparative performance, rather than from any Russian cultural trait.