First off, I'm gonna say I'm a Russian, but I wouldn't' call myself a patriot. I never liked Russian old emblems, expressions, and like Stein said about USA "it's not perfect" nowdays, but.... how horrible a show must be to make a character say such things about Russia? Again, I'm not a patriot, but he said that it's ruled by crooks and criminals, that we don't have free voting, and we aren't allowed to love whoever we like. First off, if you came o Russia you wouldn't see any criminals, like is modern and peaceful. Of course, like in any country, there are criminals, but in my life I saw only a few. Stein made it look like it's like some kind of criminal country. I don't see the percentage of criminals here being bigger than in any other country. We don't have fair voting system? just wait till we are allowed to vote for another president after our economy crashed. Something tells me far less people will be supporting Putin during the next election. and third Stein said we are not allowed to love whoever we want. If it's about anti-gay thing everyone talks about then again - the law is NOT against being gay, you are allowed to have any orientation here as you want, nobody's gonna arrest you for that. The law is against gay PROPAGANDA which is completely different. We are allowed to have any partners we choose. Just because the propaganda is restricted doesn't mean the homosexual relationship is forbidden. it's like the writers of this show took the worst stereotypes of Russia and put it into Stein's speech.
Like it wasn't enough that the creators used google translate to make signs and covers in these 2 episodes, that many of the stereotypes about Russia were collected in one episode, after Stein's speech I don't think that Americans show russians like this because of ignorance, but because they actually want to hurt Russia and russians, presenting them this way to their target audience.
I was even gonna say "this episode made my day" when Snart said "this isn't my first prison break" (that like was awesome) but after Stein's speech I'm convinced this is one of the worst shows ever in terms of writing(and I don't just mean Russian stuff, Swiss cheese has less holes than logic in this show). Oh by the way, almsot forgot - Gulag prisons were closed in 1960. Yet it still exists even in Arrow.
Conclusion - Americans! don't be ignorant, don't believe shows like this and Arrow. Visit Russia yourself and make your own, genuine opinion about it, or at least listen to people WHO ACTUALLY WERE THERE, don't trust such terrible writers.