Fascist dictatorships openly make false statements all the time, often to hide their real intentions. Russians go along with it because of some combination of fear, nationalism, nostalgia, and actually being in favor of fascism.
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A fascist doing fascist things, Make Russia Great again. He thought it would strengthen his position, he thought it would be easy, and he thought he could get away with it.
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So you reject the stated logical, mechanical, economic reasons, and ascribe it to madness and absurdity? Occam’s razor needs to be applied here, you need to justify your claims that absurdity is the reason in spite of evidence otherwise.