Well, one possible perspective is that during a lot of the 20th century the US held itself to be morally superior to the "colonial" powers as they didn't have an empire.
However, the US - like Russia, didn't colonize other "nations" it appears to have mostly completely supplanted them in the areas it grew into.
Of course, this is only of historical interest, but as a wise man once wrote: "Who controls the past controls the future".
In US the government sold land that it didn't own to armed civilians and then sent its armies to help with negotiation and settling things. Russia occupied Siberia by sending explorers and then government officials to siberian chieftains requiring submission under Russian tsarists crown by threatening them with military invasion. Then it was not uncommon in Russia for various ethnic populations to be moved (willingly or not) from one place to another in order to accomplish some political agenda. So neither US nor Russia have not "grew into" just like that.
However, the US - like Russia, didn't colonize other "nations" it appears to have mostly completely supplanted them in the areas it grew into.
Of course, this is only of historical interest, but as a wise man once wrote: "Who controls the past controls the future".