A general observation, without wishing to take anyone’s side here:

People in Western democratic countries, especially the United States, tend to view others with the subjective assumption that others think like they do.

In the opposite direction, it is not so:  The others tend to be very well understand that people in Western democratic countries think very differently than themselves.  This leads to a greater objectivity—from self-interest, if nothing else; it is self-defeating to misunderstand the rest of the world.

This applies in different ways to Russia, to China, to Arab and Muslim states—to any society that has a radically different worldview than that which is prevalent and pervasive in Western democratic countries.  Naturally, given that such societies are also radically different from each other, the same applies as between them.

It is a different level of the problem that Americans don’t “get” Europe (much as they think they do), while Europeans tend better to understand Americans.

I doubt that many people here could understand on any deep level how the Russian government perceives money, what their motives and priorities are with respect to monetary systems, how they may analyze these problems and try to implement solutions—what makes them tick.  I know I don’t.  I do expect that their approach to such matters will probably be very different than how Yellen, Wall Street, et al. would approach the same matters from the same position; and I am unsurprised if the external view of their decisions looks surprising.