To understand the cultural cold war, you must understand Putin’s motives. The ‘containment doctrine’ was the West`s policy countering an aggressively increasing Soviet sphere. A major feature of this tactic was the broadening of NATO, which paradoxically worsened the paranoid expansionist tendencies of Russia.
Putin envisions a new era of Russian dominance. Annexing Crimea killed several birds with one stone. It further destabilised a weak EU, satisfying defeated Russian national psyches, whilst boosting Putin’s personality cult. Cyberspace is another frontline in the cold war, and Russia’s sophisticated propaganda techniques are turning Soviet-era agitprop into 21st century social media.