Listening to the ATC tape, I can't understand why one of the pilots asked the controller to look out the window, to tell if the weather looked better or not. The first landing attempt was 1:41AM local time and the second attempt 3:43AM local time, so the sky would have been pitch black. How can a controller look at a dark sky and say "oh yes, the conditions look better now". To me, the fact that the plane made this call suggests the pilots were already fatigued, perhaps disorientated, and desperate to get the plane on the ground.
Absolutely to the contrary! The fact that they ask the controller to look outside illustrates to me that they were able to think out of the box, which would be the first to go when fatigued (or under stress).
To have the best situational awareness you use all the information you can get.
I think asking for an observation was a very professional thing to do (albeit it yielded little).
And having flown into and over their airspace often for 25+ years I hardly read a Russian tag, meter or runway state msg anymore, they are notoriously unreliable and just generic for the time of the season. Do what you like but for me discussing them would be a waste of time..