I think the Bradley Manning case, and the events in Wisconsin State is a good recent example that democracy and freedom in the USA is totally hyped up.
And they KILL prisoners legally, whereas Russia haven't for a long time.

I wonder what is worse, prison in Russia or prison in the USA? Russia, probably, or what do you think?

Footnote: (If you are really going to commit a crime, do it in Norway. Their prisons are better than the average 2 star hotel.) And for Sweden: When I visited a prison with school, my whole class was shocked to realise that the rooms in the prison were much more comfortable than the rooms in our boarding school.

I don't know about the correlation between living standards and democracy in other countries. But I can tell you that Sweden was POOR when general democracy started. People lived in bad housing and some did not have enough food. It was about 1918 I think. People immediately voted for the social democrats, and they slowly started to redistribute the wealth, gradually making the richer less rich and the poorer better off. They also made sure that everyone got a good education and good healthcare. All this allowed the country to live up to its economic potential and make the best of the "human resources" in the country.
I think that it is important that people have the economic and personal freedom to live up to their full potential, where that is as a labourer or a top scientist.

A country that gives everyone the opportunity to feel safe and live up to their potential will prosper economically, I think.

I am not sure whether talented people in Russia and the USA have the opportunity to live up to their potential at the moment, if they are born into poor conditions.