America has plenty of ways to allow free speech without really allowing free speech. The Internet blew up their controls for a while, but they have speech they don't like pretty well quarantined again.

In Russia, the state dominates corporations. In America, corporations dominate the state. In either case, it ultimately ends up looking pretty much the same, though I think corruption in Russia has been quite a bit worse. Most of our leaders can still fool themselves into thinking they are virtuous, and that gives the people at least some ability to push back.