Because 1. It's an easy and the most glaring example of lecturing people to do one thing, but doing the opposite themselves. 2. It was actually the country, that Russia wanted to be like during 80s and 90s, USA was a role model, but turned out to be full of shit. And the waking call happened, when USA bombed and shred to pieces Yugoslavia.
>If I say "Russia invaded Ukraine", why do I always get the response "but the USA.."
Once again, reasons are obvious if you're aware of the history.
1. USA can't lecture anyone about invading or annexing other countries, as USA invades one country after another just in the last few decades, and right now occupies Eastern part of Syria that's full of oil, and publicly brags that it's their oil. BTW, not o hard to notice a recent rhetoric in USA mass media and among politicians, that it's all about Ukraine resources and who gonna get what depending on the outcome of the war.
2. The war in Ukraine is a direct result of USA meddling in their elections in 2004 and 2013-2014, and desire to bring their military bases after the puppet government was installed. Russia was fine with sovereign Ukraine, even with a puppet like Yushchenko we were able to negotiate and live more or less peacefully, but military bases idea, kicking Russia out of Sevastopol is what spiralled this into violence.
>A deep rooted sentiment of inferiority, that triggers every time you say something bad about their country, which they hate, and respond by attacking the country they admire but can't admit.
Russians do have some sentiment on inferiority, and that's why we actually really glad when some respected and knowledgeable foreigner arrives and intend to cooperate, even teach us. For centuries such people were getting really rich working in Russia, even if they were mediocre back in their countries. But you're totally misguided on the attack part. Attack or self defense phase initiated only in the case of demonstratively refusal to make any reasonable compromise and direct hostile actions. Russian history is full of wars, we do not enjoy violence and know very well the cost in lives.
Coming back to Ukraine, it's not so hard to remember, that Putin tried really hard to avoid this war. Crimea was peacefully annexed specifically to block any attempt to bring Ukraine into NATO legally, and secure our interests in the Black Sea, after it was obvious, that newly installed puppets gonna do exactly this (later Ukraine changed their constitution and replaced their intention to be a sovereign and neutral state to be a NATO member). Then Minsk agreements were introduced, for Ukraine government to get in touch with reality, but as we know now, from public admissions, USA, Germany and France intentionally sabotaged these agreements, pushing Ukraine into a military resolution (and at the same time they were introducing more and more sanctions towards Russia, lying that we do not respect our part of the deal). Then, Ukraine finally started to move their heavy equipment to Donbass in the early Autumn of 2021, and Zelensky publicly announced, that he won't respect Minsk agreements (it meant escalation in Donbass). Putin then spent several month in the Winter of 2021-2022 trying to make a deal with USA, to prevent direct war. But USA declared, that they can do whatever they want, build their bases wherever they can etc. So, we got an initial invasion of Feb 2022, when Russian army pushed to Kiev and Putin immediately proposed just another plan of how to stop all this. Ukraine government was ready to sign it, but Boris arrived and told them that they have to fight (also a public knowledge now, with multiple admissions of people involved in the process). It's not so hard to notice, that up to this day, Putin is ready to negotiate and stop this violence, it's Ukraine and the NATO countries behind their back are refusing to. And it's very easy to target USA and Western propaganda in general, that publicly lies up to this day, that "mad Vlad just woke up and invaded a sovereign country without any reason, because he's evil".
>Without looking at polls, what do you think is the percentage of the Russian population that answered Yes to the question: if given the chance to move to the USA, would you? If you believe what you're saying, you probably think this is a very small number.
I don't know if it's a very small number, small number or anything else. What I do know, is that there's still a myth in some countries, that Russia is some country that is behind an Iron Wall, that is hard to escape. Reality is different. Russia is open to the whole world, you can buy a ticket to fly to any country. We have millions of foreign tourists and migrants for decades. Anyone who really wanted to leave Russia did it already, or can do it today, for example. And a lot of people who did, returned already, because they learnt, that what they thought about some countries is not equal to how life there actually is. Reality is, that in the last 20 years Russia made a huge leap in quality of life in every sphere, and for me personally there's no desire to live in any other country, because I like it here.