[ahje]

Very jealous. Russia is simply considered the "good guy", standing up against the perceived oppression from globalism and European federalism.

The people of the EU often want to see ourselves as progressive, but we're a very diverse lot and there's a lot of people who would like to take a few steps back in regards to LGBT rights, Pan-Europeanism and multi-culturalism.

[pas]

The actual popular support [or opposition] for whatever ideas [or against] are usually very different than what strongly consolidated power hierarchies show. (That is in countries where one party gained significant power, eg. in Hungary and Poland.)

[ahje]

Of course. EU citizens, on average, have very little information about what's happening in the eastern parts of Europe, no matter the subject, and since many people dis-trust mainstream media nowadays it's easy to spread one's own narrative and use that for one's own purposes, while ignoring the fact that such expressive freedom wouldn't be possible without the system that one is critizizing.