AxlF16,
It has been disheartening reading some of the posts. Your comments of positions being binary either/or are spot on. It infects all of our discourse in this country and seems to paralyze any degree of critical thinking.
Russia has a long history of very effective use of "Fake News". (an aside, fake news is not what we tend to call out in our polarized politics when we just see bias or disagree, it is planted stories from fake news sources, fake experts, fake organizations etc and usually created by a govt or some sort of political organization that wishes to not be seen as the origin)
Russia has used this masterfully and I see the results of its long gestation almost daily. Many of their fundamental falsehoods are imbedded in comments that I have read here. They date back at least to Stalin from the latter days of WW2 and have been an avalanche during the last 10 plus years of the Putin Oligarchy.
Putin has long term strategic goals from somewhat traditional logic, and short term Nationalistic goals of a more 'national spiritual' nature.
He has been aided, intentionally or not, by some people, political organizations, and news outlets in 'The West', and now here we are.