:::::Google scholar finds 126 sources citing Padgett 2003a, 66 citing Padgett 2003b, and 110 citing the 2001 article in which they first examined and laid out these phonetic particularities of Russian. I'm not sure how many of these are critical (and therefore don't know how representative this view is among modern scholars), but I don't think it's particularly recent or even a mere suggestion.  It is, according to this scholar, consistent with cross-linguistic tendencies when phonemic contrasts of palatalized and non-palatalized consonants are maintained before  (Irish phonology may mention a similar dynamic with "broad" and "slender" consonants). In other words, it would be kind of weird if Russian weren't this way. —