I think you meant "deflating" the efforts. Anyway, I agree with you that I overestimated that influence and didn't factor in what you write about. It's very hard to see through all the Propaganda from both sides. I fell for a lot of Russian propaganda.

I don't go back and re-write my pieces (will only edit for clarity). Thanks for the comment. Lately I've been watching Vlad Vexler. A few months ago I would have thought him too philosophical. Now he sounds like he's reading from the actual user's manual of Putin's head ;)