Maybe the conclusion here is, judging from the 30s, WW II, and recent events (not just in Russia but Nationalist uprisings in Europe and the US), propaganda, even when the truth is available, works...at least in the short run. In the long run it probably leads to brain-drain, ill-advised aggression, possibly economic isolation and collapse. It bills itself as anti-corruption, but then collapses under its own corruption.

As to brain-drain, I may be naive on this front, but I was reading yesterday about all the distinguished American-Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Armenians, Georgians, and Russian Jews...its as though the groups that high-minded Russians proper don't like, abuse, or fear become the best and brightest "expats". Even the Russian Orthodox Church promotes this "Holy War" and condemns the West as "Nazis" (most likely a proxy for our perceived "loose morals", actually a type of intellectual curiosity and related humor, which is truth and irony-laden)