The narrative of Putin mind controlling grandpa through facebook memes is copium that appeals to liberals because it allows them to LARP as citizens of a civil democratic society that just happens to have an unfortunate nazi problem caused entirely by nefarious outside influence. In reality, the states in which these narratives are popular have a long tradition of homebrewed genocidal ethnonationalism that culminated in enthusiastic participation in nazi crimes. These reactionary ideologies did not simply phase out of existence after the war, what we see today is simply the continuation of these historical tendencies.

Beyond the copium, white supremacy is the foundation of the imperial core and eastern europeans know exactly what they are doing. Countries like Poland, Romania, the Baltic states, etc are not manipulated into consuming far right propaganda because of a Putinist plot to destroy the west, they are actively and willingly turning up the nazi dial while looking at the core for approval and support. The prevailing worldview is that they are honorary aryans temporarily embarrassed by socialism (which was forced upon them by evil russians) who will claim their rightful place in the world hierarchy through a mountain of mongol blooded orc corpses. The militant ones like Azov will literally film themselves explaining this in detail.