The problem is Russia is that they want to regulate bitcoin instead of recognize it without intervention.

They want to regulate like they regulate every single one of their citizens. The want to track every single transaction(I don't even think that is actually possible, though), and track down illegal transactions and persecute them.

If Russia wanted to recognize bitcoin, then they could do it in a non- or less interventionist way. I mean look at Japan.

I think that a lot of Russians already use bitcoin, just look at the Russian board.

It'll actually be bad news for them that the government is deciding to track all transactions by 2018. unfortunately.