I’ve wondered about this before as well. I recall that people in Russia really looked up to the west after USSR collapsed, and everybody was very hopeful thinking that Russia would be integrated into the western system and life would improve. Most people didn’t really understand what capitalism was, and didn’t expect the west to act in a predatory way towards Russia.

I haven’t participated much in the old games/mods communities myself, but I’ve done a bunch of open source work and connected with a lot of people across the world that way.

The promise of the internet was that it allowed people all across the world to connect with each other and build relationships. I suspect that ultimately this didn’t translate into high enough level of connections in general public to make a difference. Niche groups of people who established relationships and understanding, but majority of the people remained insular within their cultures.