LetsEat, DpDownSouth, what are you writing here about 1990s Russia is true, but incomplete - in fact, it is exactly HALF true.
The full truth that 1990s was BOTH wonderful and horrible, beautiful and ugly, blissful and miserable epoch. All in the same time.
Effectively, the 1990s Russia was close to the "anarcho-capitalism" which is so eagerly defended by some Americans (and a few Europeans, as well as a very few Russians) nowadays. State was formerly there, but effectively it was largely non-existent.
The great and positive side of this situation was an unlimited and unrestrained personal freedom - intellectual, creative, religious, spiritual, sexual, somatic, social, communal, any other kind one can imagine. Anyone can learn what one willed, say what one willed, create what one willed, sleep with anyone who willed it, believe and worship anything one willed, try any spiritual practice one willed, use any substance one willed, befreind anyone who willed, live with anyone who willed, etc. There were no restrictions and limitations whatsoever, one's will being free to fulfill itself fully. And it was great.
What was not so great - and what destroyed the 1990s social experiment in the end - was the painful fact that no economic provision, political protection or environmental preservation were available. State that could grant them was dysfuctional, and there was no highly-developed network-type social organisation that could provide them, thus taking the positive role of the state while rejecting its negative - violent and restictive - side. So, all the negative events that you describe above took place - people starved to death or was killed by gangsters; employers exploited the workers, didn't pay them and hired the aforementioned ganagsters to deal with the protesting employees; cultural relics and sites was ruined, or stolen and sold, and since organisation sustaining them could not survive on a commercial basis; air, water and soil were poisoned since no environmental regulations were working; etc., etc.
Unfortunately, most people prefer economic provision, political protection or environmental preservation to the personal freedom and fulfillment of one's will. So, when Putin and his company of largely (former-)intelligence-services-police-and-military supporters came and proposed Russians a dark bargain - to sacrifice one's freedom and will for sake of safety and support - most people agreed enthusiastically.
Since then, Russia was an authoritarian state under the control of a life-long dictator and his clique. Yet, these rulers did kept their part of the bargain - economic support, end of mass gangsterism, some attention to ecology etc. A lot of people's lives did became more safe and prosperous under Putin. Yet the payment was the freedom these people once enjoyed.
Recently, however, the bargain between power and populace that maintained Putin's rule for so long became to crubmle - being drunk with the imperialistic and shauvinist propaganda about "the greatness of Russia" that was the ideological justification of the regime, the rulers apparently believed in it themselves and became aggressive on the international arena. This lead them to the global clash with the currently-dominant Western states, lead by the USA, and problems at home and abroad. In home, particularly, Putin' rule, that may be initally characterised as (relatively) "soft" dictatorship, became "harder" and even "harder" still, increasing level of suppression and repression of any sign of dissent, as economic prosperity waned. This day, I can't say what will be next for Russia, but the perspectives are quite grim, since Russian economy is weakening and Russian politics grow more and more oppressive internally, and more and more confrontational externally, literally every year (if not every month)...