^ I follow very very little of this conflict or of the news in general, so I can't judge any of the particulars said here, but I found this thread very interesting, and worth thinking about re: Putin the madman type impressions.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1498 ... 80384.html
I do know that the Russian state is
really good at propaganda. If you have been as into that scene as I have, you saw how RT totally catched the conspiracy crowd, the psychedelic enthusiasts, the Paulites, in short whole audiences of alternative western internet culture. For many years they have shown an impressive ability to sense exactly what disaffected westerners want to hear. Now their troll farms are of course well known. Those appear follow the same strategy as that of the Swedish far right (likely unsconsciously) once they started to creep onto youtube and comment fields in the mid-00s. The tactic was: show your presence, have as many comment as possible, bombard with information - sensational, exaggerated or flat out false; causing confusion, suspicion and doubt. Anything repeated, with enough conviction, can become true.
(or maybe the guy in the thread is doing a reverse psyop?... o_O)