It feels like you believe a player on Russia should suffer.
First.
Pacify the Steppes is literally impossible to successfully complete (calculator confirms).
I was able to decrease Liberty Desire by 0.25 per week in a perfect run (in Orta Zhuz it was ~0.30 because of Support Regime), but usually the decrease was 0.15-0.25 (average 0,2).
There is 10 years or 520 weeks to Pacify the Steppes.
520 × (−0,2) = −104
So it is possible to reduce the Liberty Desire by 104 in 10 years
But Russia needs to use Reduced Autonomy twice for each subject, and that already gives 100 Liberty Desire for the target subject and +20 for others. Totally 120 for each subject. And I only took into count Liberty Desire that are given when the level of autonomy is decrease. And Russia should also take away regions (three times) that will also increase the Liberty Desire.
In one game I managed to almost get close to Pacify the Steppes because I started lowering Liberty Desire right from the start of the game (which is actually inadequate in terms of immersion), but just two years before the end of journal entry Pacify the Steppes, anti-me-lobby spawn in one of the Zhuz (smol one). -0.23 turned into -0.02. Because of one Zhuz and a stupid RNG everything went to hell with no way to fix it.
I understand that this must be difficult to do, but at least make it possible!
Second.
Russia can't win the Great Game. No chance. If you play adequately, of course, and not like a rabid warmonger. It's impossible to beat the British prestige and GDP for Russia. I started a game as Britain and went AFK. Easy win.
UPD: I decided to play it the way PDX intended. I waited for the rebellion of the Kazakhs, saw that they should become my protectorate, but added a couple of states to the diploplay. Defeated the Kazakhs... Some script went off and:
1. The Kazakhs remained independent.
2. I didn't get any states.
UPD2:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/1691632/ — issue report