Of course, these deals take a long time to prepare, so it's not a surprise to anybody, but the sanctions against Russia combined with the low oil and gas prices probably led to expediting the deal. The same as the gas deal they signed with China few months ago (and China is no pushover so they must have gotten everything they wanted out of it).
I have seen a little bit of Russia negotiate nuclear power plant deals and it is no fun for the other party when Russia holds all of the trump cards.

If anything I'd say Russia is being forced to accept less than what they are trying to extract and even if they are presenting it as a victory it most likely is a concession.

In many ways current Russia is worse than the Soviet Union because it is authoritarian and not totalitarian. But even though Putin is relatively young and healthy he can not live forever, so this system is not sustainable in the long term.