It is not that Russia is USSR, it is that USSR was Russia + colonized, enslaved nations, like Russian Empire before it.
The evil of USSR did was because Russia was in charge.
The evil of USSR did was because Russia was in charge.
Even if you unwind all the way to the Grand Duchy of Moscow, we'd have to talk about Kazan etc.
Which per Wikipedia is simply:
A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule.
The fact that it might have also provided subsidies to some of the republics at various times (when not withholding food and/or engaging in massive, violent repressive actions against them) is entirely irrelevant to this definition. Recall that the Western colonial powers always bragged about all the infrastructure they built in their colonies, and South Africa always tried to point out the subsidies it provided its Bantustans, etc.